Université de Fribourg

Breast cancer stem cells with tumor- versus metastasis-initiating capacities are modulated by TGFBR1 inhibition

Fico, Flavia ; Bousquenaud, Mélanie ; Rüegg, Curzio ; Santamaria-Martínez, Albert

In: Stem Cell Reports, 2019, vol. 13, no. 1, p. 1–9

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are defined by their ability to regenerate a tumor upon transplantation. However, it is not yet clear whether tumors contain a single CSC population or different subsets of cells with mixed capacities for initiating primary and secondary tumors. Using two different identification strategies, we studied the overlap between metastatic stem cells and tumor-initiating...

Université de Fribourg

Obesity promotes the expansion of metastasis-initiating cells in breast cancer

Bousquenaud, Mélanie ; Fico, Flavia ; Solinas, Giovanni ; Rüegg, Curzio ; Santamaria-Martínez, Albert

In: Breast Cancer Research, 2018, vol. 20, no. 1, p. 104

Obesity is a strong predictor of poor prognosis in breast cancer, especially in postmenopausal women. In particular, tumors in obese patients tend to seed more distant metastases, although the biology behind this observation remains poorly understood.Methods: To elucidate the effects of the obese microenvironment on metastatic spread, we ovariectomized C57BL/6 J female mice and fed them...

Université de Fribourg

TGFBI modulates tumour hypoxia and promotes breast cancer metastasis

Fico, Flavia ; Santamaria‐Martínez, Albert

In: Molecular Oncology, 2020, vol. 14, no. 12, p. 3198–3210

Breast cancer metastasis is a complex process that depends not only on intrinsic characteristics of metastatic stem cells, but also on the particular microenvironment that supports their growth and modulates the plasticity of the system. In search for microenvironmental factors supporting cancer stem cell (CSC) growth and tumour progression to metastasis, we here investigated the role of the...