Description
The cancer stem cell model maintains that tumors are organized in a hierarchy driven by tumor initiating cells (TICs), and that patient survival inversely correlates with TIC gene expression. Here we generated a prognostic signature for HER2+ breast cancer from TICs purified from MMTV-Her2/Neu mammary tumors. TICs from this model, identified as Lin-:CD24+:JAG1- at a frequency of 2-5% by serial and single cell transplantation assays, showed elevated expression of proliferation genes and low expression of differentiation genes (compared to non-TIC fraction CD24- of the same tumor).