Putative cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in HNSCC, and BMI1 expression has been linked to these phenotypes, but optimal treatment strategies to overcome chemotherapeutic resistance and eliminate metastases have not yet been identified.
(2017) show that mouse and human HNSCCs and their metastases depend on Bmi1-expressing cancer stem cells and AP1 signaling and that simultaneously inhibiting Bmi1 or AP1, combined with Cisplatin, reduces tumor growth effectively in preclinical models.
Our study implies that detection of Bmi-1 and RKIP is valuable in predicting patient survival and therapeutic response in gastric cancer, and the inverse association between Bmi-1 and RKIP reveals the potential molecular mechanisms underlying tumor metastasis and chemotherapy resistance.
The high expression of BMI-1 in cervical cancer is related to tumor progression, lymph node metastasis and HPV infection, suggesting that cervical cancer with excessive BMI-1 expression possesses high metastases potential and that BMI-1 may be a promising biomarker for predicting metastasis in cervical cancer.