Transcription factors associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells in the tumor centre and margin of invasive breast cancer

Our results suggest that reliable in situ markers for EMT are missing for invasive breast cancer. Alternatively, the process of EMT might be activated in tumor cells at the margin as well as the centre. Furthermore, our data show that the bio-markers of CSC detect very variable cell populations within breast cancer, challenging the assumption of a hierarchical organization of CSC in these tumors.