SURVIVIN as a marker for quiescent-breast cancer stem cells-An intermediate, adherent, pre-requisite phase of breast cancer metastasis

Cancer stem cells drive the metastatic cascade by undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and again mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET). Using multiple breast cancer cell lines including cigarette smoke induced breast cancer cells and tumor derived primary cells from patient sample; we developed a breast cancer metastasis model and reported the existence of an adherent, distinct pre-metastatic phase, quiescent-breast cancer stem cells (Q-BCSCs) prior to attaining an EMT. SURVIVIN was found to be expressed in Q-BCSCs. Time dependant biphasic expression of SURVIVIN in Q-BCSCs reveals that Q-BCSCs is a pre-metastatic phase distinct from both epithelial and mesenchymal counterparts. SURVIVIN favours metastasis and up-regulates WNT/beta-CATENIN pathway in a PI3 K/AKT-dependant manner for self-renewal. Knockdown of SURVIVIN in Q-BCSCs lost the metastatic property of cells by inhibiting invasion, EMT-MET, PI3 K/AKT/WNT cascade, and induced apoptosis. Thus, our data suggest the existence of a novel pre-metastatic phase (Q-BCSCs) before EMT and SURVIVIN acts as a marker for Quiescent-BCSCs.