The GSEA analysis of cell signaling and cancer-associated pathways further revealed that the soft NC cultured PDECs upregulated genes and gene expression profiles of fibroblast growth factor signaling (FGF), epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), mesenchymal breast cancer related pathways as well as mammary stem cell/luminal progenitor like phenotype e.g., Wingless/Integrated signaling (WNT), and TGF-β pathways (Fig. 3A, B, Supplementary Figs. 5A, B, 6A, and Source Data)30–33. This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and breast cancer.