Gap Junctions and Breast Cancer Dormancy.

Breast cancer (BC) relapse, despite clinical advancement, remains one of the biggest issues in the field. Intercellular communication, specifically via connexin (Cx)-mediated gap junctions (GJs), play a key role in the long-term survival of these, treatment-resistant breast cancer stem cells (CSCs), allowing for relapse. Both basic and clinical evidence reveal dual roles for GJs, in tumor suppression, generally referred to as dormancy, and progression and metastasis. GJ intercellular communication (GJIC) can be mediated by multiple types of Cxs, depending on the organ to which the BC cells metastasize. This review expands on the differential expression of Cx-mediated GJIC between CSCs and niche cells within a given microenvironment.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Trends in Cancer

• Publication date

  2020-04-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.trecan.2020.01.013PMID 32209448
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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