A review of the racial heterogeneity of breast cancer stem cells

•Research on breast cancer stem cells has increased in the past two decades but racial comparative studies in this area remains scanty.•This is a racial comparative study of breast cancer stem cells and their association with clinicopathological features and clinical outcomes.•ALDH1 is the most researched breast cancer stem cell marker associated with poor clinicopathological features.•CD44+/CD24−/low has been associated with TNBC/Basal like phenotype across all races. Breast Cancer Stem Cells has become the toast of many breast cancer investigators in the past two decades owing to their crucial roles in tumourigenesis, progression, differentiation, survival and chemoresistance. Despite the growing list of research data in this field, racial or ethnic comparison studies on these stem cells remain scanty. This study is a comparative racial analysis of putative breast cancer stem cells. Research articles on the clinicopathological significance of breast cancer stem cells within a period of 17 years (2003–2020) were reviewed across 5 major races (African/Black American, Asian, Caucasian/White, Hispanic/Latino, and American). The associations between the stem cells markers (CD44+/CD24−/low, BMI1, ALDH1, CD133, and GD2) and clinicopathological and clinical outcomes were analysed. A total of 40 studies were included in this study with 50% Asian, 25% Caucasian, 10% African, 5% American and 2.5% Hispanic/Latino, and 7.5% other mixed races. CD44+/CD24−/low has been associated with TNBC/Basal like phenotype across all races. It is generally associated with poor clinicopathological features such as age, tumour size, lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular invasion. In Asians, CD44+/CD24−/low was associated with DFS and OS but not in Caucasians. ALDH1 was the most studied breast CSC marker (40% of all studies on breast cancer stem cell markers) also associated with poor clinicopathological features including size, age, stage, lymph node metastasis and Nottingham Prognostic Index. ALDH1 was also associated with DFS and OS in Asians but not Caucasians. Racial variations exist in breast cancer stem cell pattern and functions but ill-defined due to multiple factors. Further research is required to better understand the role of breast CSC.