Interestingly, the comparison of myoepithelial cells from normal breast tissue with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) yielded the highest number of consistently differentially expressed genes; a significant fraction of these encoded for secreted proteins and cell surface receptors, suggesting intensive autocrine/paracrine regulatory loops in the breast pre-cancer and cancer microenvironment [27,30,31,42]. Here, CD177 is linked to ductal breast carcinoma in situ.