Researchers at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that the onset of breast cancer may be due to defects in somatic adult stem cell niches that exist long before tumors develop. The research, published in the October 2005 issue of Tissue and Cell, is the first to examine the highly specialized microenvironment, termed the stem cell niche, which surrounds adult stem cells, and its role in breast cancer development. These niches are key regulators of stem cell activity in mammary tissue, and defects that develop in these groups of cells can give rise to breast cancer.
