CD44 and neoplasm: Furthermore, It has been described that cancer cells can acquire a CD44+/CD24− phenotype through epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) [16] Moreover, Meyer et al. hypothesized that an interconversion between the differentiated and stem-like phenotypes occurs in breast cancer and suggested that epithelial like CD44+/CD24+ can generate CD44+/CD24− cells during tumor initiation [17].