Authors: Hetvi Solanki, Mohammed S. Inayat, Vincent S. Gallicchio
The most frequently diagnosed cancer and primary cause of cancer mortality in women is breast cancer. Numerous risk factors contribute to the development of breast cancer including gender, age, ethnicity, family history, female hormone exposure, and genetic risk-factors. Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) makes up 10-15% of all breast cancers and is highly understudied. ILC is often difficult to detect clinically due to variations in presentation. As of right now, the modes of breast cancer treatment include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy. Each of these treatments have numerous side effects including diarrhea, alopecia, arthralgia, and anesthesia. Stem cells possess the ability to continuously self-renew and differentiate. Tumor-tropism effects are observed in neural stem cells, neural progenitor cells, and mesenchymal stem cells. For this reason, these cells are attractive for use as targeted delivery vectors for antitumor therapies. Genetic engineered stem cell (GESTEC)-based therapy can utilize neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from human fetal telencephalon to treat numerous types of cancers and brain diseases. The regulatory mechanisms resulting in the contribution of cancer stem cells (CSC) to breast cancer requires further investigation.
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