Breast and Cervical Cancer

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different subtypes. A higher incidence of a subtype defined by lack of expression of ER, PR as well as HER2, designated as Triple Negative Breast Cancers (TNBC), has been reported among Indian women (approximately 15-25%). This is the most aggressive form with poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related is a major trait of cancer stem cells. The drug resistance, recurrence and disease progression is attributed to Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs). Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is involved in several pathological activities associated with tumor progression and chemoresistance. However, the role and molecular mechanism of Gal-3 activity in breast carcinoma epithelial-mesenchymal transition remain enigmatic. In the current study, we tried to examine the role of Gal-3 in EMT associated gene expression, tumor invasion, metastasis and apoptosis in hormone negative and hormone positive breast cancer cell lines. Knockdown of the galectin-3 gene increases the sensitivity of MDA-MB-231 cells to drug-induced apoptosis as well as Expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related associated gene expression suggesting that Galectin-3 may have a functional role in stem cell regulation in TNBCs.