Compared to 3.73 ± 0.24% of CD44-positive (CD44+)/CD24-negative (CD24−) cells in EpCAM-positive (EpCAM+)/CD45− negative (CD45−)/CK-positive (CK+) breast cancer cells isolated from 10 breast cancer patients, the percentage of TS+ cells in total breast cancer cells were 22.51 ± 0.92%, which was higher than that in non-tumor cells from adjacent breast tissues (Supplementary Fig. 1j). Here, CD44 is linked to breast carcinoma.