Gene expression predicts dormant metastatic breast cancer cell phenotype

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer can recur months to decades after an initial diagnosis and treatment. The mechanisms that control tumor cell dormancy remain poorly understood, making it difficult to predict which patients will recur and thus benefit from more rigorous screening and treatments. Unfortunately, the extreme rarity of dormant DTCs has been a major obstacle to their study. METHODS: To overcome this challenge, we developed an efficient system to isolate and study rare dormant breast cancer cells from metastatic organs including bones, which represent a major site of metastasis. After isolation of cells from the long bones, we used single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile proliferative and dormant PyMT-Bo1 breast cancer cells. We also compared this signature to dormant versus proliferative tumor cells isolated from the lungs. Finally, we compared our dormant signature to human datasets. RESULTS: We identified a group of genes including Cfh, Gas6, Mme and Ogn that were highly expressed in dormant breast cancer cells present in the bone and lung. Expression of these genes had no impact on dormancy in murine models, but their expression correlated with disease-free survival in primary human breast cancer tumors, suggesting that these genes have predictive value in determining which patients are likely to recur. CONCLUSIONS: Dormant breast cancer cells exhibit a distinct gene expression signature regardless of metastatic site. Genes enriched in dormant breast cancer cells correlate with recurrence-free survival in breast cancer patients

Americans Abroad: A Global Diaspora?

This article uses the lens of diaspora to explore the understudied case of US emigration and the transnationalism of Americans residing abroad. Although rarely recognized as such, native-born US citizens are also migrants who cross international borders, maintain close cultural and political ties to their homeland, and form social networks with their compatriots scattered across the globe. Despite these "diasporic" tendencies, various peculiarities of the case (individual and national privilege high among them) render Americans unlikely subjects for the application of a concept commonly associated with coercion, trauma, and marginalization. Nevertheless, this article maintains that (1) the inclusion of a counterintuitive but compatible case can sharpen the conceptualization of an already inflated term; and (2) the application of a counterintuitive framework can illuminate aspects of American mobility and belonging with significant implications for the host countries, the homeland, and the migrants themselves

Privileged Mobility in an Age of Globality

By 2050, the world’s population of international migrants is estimated to top 400 million. A small but growing number of those migrants are leaving well-developed, affluent countries best known for receiving immigrants to settle in less well-developed countries better known for sending migrants. These migrants of relative privilege, many of them retirees, are motivated primarily by a desire to enhance their quality of life. Although this migratory flow receives much less attention than more familiar, and reverse, movements of laborers or refugees, its implications for the destination sites, sites of origin, and study of international migration generally are significant. This article will examine the contemporary border crossing of privileged migrants, the economic, political and cultural stakes for the countries and individuals involved, and the implications of incorporating privileged mobility into the study of global migration and transnationalism

Americans Abroad: A Global Diaspora?

This article uses the lens of diaspora to explore the understudied case of US emigration and the transnationalism of Americans residing abroad. Although rarely recognized as such, native-born US citizens are also migrants who cross international borders, maintain close cultural and political ties to their homeland, and form social networks with their compatriots scattered across the globe. Despite these "diasporic" tendencies, various peculiarities of the case (individual and national privilege high among them) render Americans unlikely subjects for the application of a concept commonly associated with coercion, trauma, and marginalization. Nevertheless, this article maintains that (1) the inclusion of a counterintuitive but compatible case can sharpen the conceptualization of an already inflated term; and (2) the application of a counterintuitive framework can illuminate aspects of American mobility and belonging with significant implications for the host countries, the homeland, and the migrants themselves

Americans Abroad: A Global Diaspora?

This article uses the lens of diaspora to explore the understudied case of US emigration and the transnationalism of Americans residing abroad. Although rarely recognized as such, native-born US citizens are also migrants who cross international borders, maintain close cultural and political ties to their homeland, and form social networks with their compatriots scattered across the globe. Despite these "diasporic" tendencies, various peculiarities of the case (individual and national privilege high among them) render Americans unlikely subjects for the application of a concept commonly associated with coercion, trauma, and marginalization. Nevertheless, this article maintains that (1) the inclusion of a counterintuitive but compatible case can sharpen the conceptualization of an already inflated term; and (2) the application of a counterintuitive framework can illuminate aspects of American mobility and belonging with significant implications for the host countries, the homeland, and the migrants themselves