Association of Breast Cancer Stem Cells Identified by Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 Expression with Resistance to Sequential Paclitaxel and Epirubicin-Based Chemotherapy for Breast Cancers

Abstract

Our findings suggest that breast cancer stem cells identified as ALDH1-positive, but not CD44(+)/CD24(-), play a significant role in resistance to chemotherapy. ALDH1-positive thus seems to be a more significantly predictive marker than CD44(+)/CD24(-) for the identification of breast cancer stem cells in terms of resistance to chemotherapy.