CSC may be related to prognosis in primary breast cancer

Cancer Stem Cells May Be Related To Prognosis In Primary Breast Cancer, ScienceDaily, May 14, 2009. The first two paragraphs:

Breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy prior to surgery had heightened levels of cancer-initiating stem cells in their bone marrow, and the level of such cells correlated to a tumor's lymph node involvement, according to research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

James Reuben, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Hematopathology, will present the findings in an oral presentation at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting. It's the first prospective study to investigate the presence of breast cancer stem cells of primary breast cancer patients. The results suggest the need for additional biological therapies, as well as a potential and promising new direction for the study of micro-metastasis.