A Schematic model of DNA-repair signaling pathways mediating the resistance of BC stem-like cells to chemotherapy. B Workflow of purification of sphere cells from serially transplanted BC PDX and their use for in vitro and in vivo drug toxicity testing. C Size of tumors generated by orthotopic injection of scramble (scr) and short hairpin Sam68 (shSam68) BCSphCs treated with vehicle (veh) and BO2. Arrows indicate the start and the end of treatment. Data are expressed as mean of tumors generated by the injection of BCSphCs (#4, #13, and #21) ± SEM (n = 5 mice per group). D Size of tumors generated by orthotopic injection of scramble (scr) and short hairpin Sam68 (shSam68) BCSphCs (#4, #13, #21) treated with vehicle, olaparib, BO2, cisplatin and olaparib plus BO2 and olaparib plus cisplatin and BO2. Arrows indicate the beginning and the end of treatment. Data are expressed as mean of tumors generated by the injection of BCSphCs (#4, #13, and #21) ± SEM (n = 5 mice per group). ****p value ≤ 0.0001. E Immunoblot analysis of Rad51 in BCSphCs (#15) treated with dinaciclib for 24 h at the indicated concentration. Β-actin was used as loading control. F Cell viability percentage of scramble (scr) and short hairpin Sam68 (shSam68) BCSphCs (#4, #13, #15, and #21) treated with vehicle and dinaciclib (10 nM) for 6 days. Data are represented as mean ± SEM (n = 2). *p value ≤ 0.05; ***p value ≤ 0.001. G Representative images (left panel) and quantification of area (right panel) of BC sphere cells (#21), transduced with scramble (scr) and short hairpin Sam68 (shSam68) lentiviral vectors, treated with vehicle and dinaciclib for 6 days. Data are represented as mean ± SEM (n = 3). Ns not significant, **p value ≤ 0.01; ***p value ≤ 0.001. Scale bar represents 100 µm. H Size of tumors generated by orthotopic injection of scramble (scr) and short hairpin Sam68 (shSam68) BCSphCs treated with vehicle (veh) and dinaciclib (din). Arrows indicate the start and the end of treatment. Data are expressed as mean of tumors generated by the injection of BCSphCs (#4, #7, #13) ± SEM (n = 5 mice per group). ****p value ≤ 0.0001. I Cell viability percentage of BCSphCs (#4, #13, #14, #15, #21) treated with vehicle, olaparib and dinaciclib, alone or in combination, at the indicated concentrations for 6 days. Data are represented as mean ± SD (n = 3). J Synergy plot representing the combination index (CI), computed in CompuSyn by using Chou-Talalay method, for each olaparib and dinaciclib dose pair, calculated from cell viability data of BCSphCs (#13). K Size of tumors generated by orthotopic injection of BCSphCs treated with vehicle, olaparib, dinaciclib and olaparib plus dinaciclib. Arrows indicate the start and the end of treatment. Data are expressed as mean of tumors generated with BCSphCs (#4, #7, #13) ± SEM (n = 5 mice per group). ***p value ≤ 0.001.