Breast tumor-initiating cells

Zhang M, Behbod F, Atkinson RL, Landis MD, Kittrell F, Edwards D, Medina D, Tsimelzon A, Hilsenbeck S, Green JE, Michalowska AM, Rosen JM. Identification of tumor-initiating cells in a p53-null mouse model of breast cancer. Cancer Res 2008 68 4674-4682. 

Lacerda 1, Pusztai L, Woodward WA. The role of tumor-initiating cells in drug resistance of breast cancer implications for future therapeutic approaches. Drug Resist Updat. 

It has been suggested that tamoxifen, one of the most effective therapeutic and chemopreventive agent for breast cancer, modulates protein kinase C through oxidative stress in breast cancer cells [194], Unfortunately, most breast cancers initially responsive to tamoxifen treatment later become resistant. Schiff et al. [195] suggested that the conversion of breast tumors to a tamoxifen-resistant phenotype is associated with oxidative stress and depends on significantly enhanced SOD activity in tumors. 

Preliminary in vitro and animal studies of the effects of silymarin and silybinin have been carried out with several cancer cell lines. In murine models of skin cancer, silybinin and silymarin were said to reduce tumor initiation and promotion. Induction of apoptosis has also been reported using silymarin in a variety of malignant human cell lines (eg, melanoma, prostate, leukemia cells, bladder transitional-cell papilloma cells, and hepatoma cells). Inhibition of cell growth and proliferation by inducing a Gx cell cycle arrest has also been claimed in cultured human breast and prostate cancer cell lines. The use of milk thistle in the clinical treatment of cancer has not yet been adequately studied but preliminary trials are under way. 

When used in tumor cells, fulvestrant was initially described as a potent, competitive growth inhibitor of ER-positive, human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, whose growth is stimulated by estradiol. The compound was ineffective in tumor cell lines without ER, such as MDA-MB-231. The inhibitory effects were more pronounced with fulvestrant than with tamoxifen in the same cell line (Wakeling et al. 1991). 

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