Though this study is first to describe the mechanistic role of FGF2 in CD44+ GCSC growth, our results are consistent with previous reports that FGFR2 can maintain breast tumor initiating cells [30] and that high FGFR-2 IIIc expression confers stem cell features to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cancer cells [31]. Here, FGF2 is linked to breast neoplasm.