Background:

• Cancer stem cells in breast cancer have been identified as a small population of tumor cells whose self-renewal mechanism is highly deregulated. This deregulation seems to be necessary for cancer to develop.
• These cells can be identified by certain surface markers that overlap with markers associated with normal embryonic stem cells.

Objective: To isolate tumor stem cells using the same methods generally used to isolate human embryonic stem cells.

Eligibility:

• Tissue samples will be obtained from the human cooperative network.
• Samples will include normal tissues from individuals who have no opportunistic diseases and from individuals with cancer.

Design: Breast cancer stem cells will be isolated, grown in the laboratory and characterized.

Cancers are composed of heterogeneous populations of cells with varying degrees of proliferative capacity and ability to reconstitute tumors when transplanted into nude or SCID mice.

Recently, cancer stem cells have been identified as a small population of tumor cells which possess the stem cell properties in that their self-renewal pathway is highly deregulated. This deregulation seems to be the prerequisite for the development of cancer.

• INCLUSION CRITERIA:

The tissue samples will come from the human cooperative network. They have their own set of criteria. We are requesting tissue samples from individuals that are normal as well as those who have cancer.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

The tissue samples will come from the human cooperative tissue network and we are asking for normal samples from individuals who don't have any opportunistic diseases.