Collins Anne T, Maitland Norman J
University of York, YCR Cancer Research Unit, Department of Biology, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Eur J Cancer. 2006 Jun;42(9):1213-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2006.01.037. Epub 2006 May 2.
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. Despite recent advances in the detection of early prostate cancer there is little effective therapy for patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic disease. The majority of patients with advanced disease respond initially to androgen ablation therapy. However, most go on to develop androgen-independent tumours that inevitably are fatal. A similar response is seen to chemotherapeutic and radiotherapy treatments. As a result, metastatic prostate cancer remains an incurable disease by current treatment strategies. Recent reports of cancer stem cells have prompted questions regarding the involvement of normal stem/progenitor cells in prostate tumour biology, their potential contribution to the tumour itself and whether they are the cause of tumour initiation and progression. Although still controversial, the cancer stem cell is likely to be the most crucial target in the treatment of prostate cancer, and a thorough understanding of its biology, particularly of how the cancer stem cell differs from the normal stem cell, might allow it to be targeted selectively and eliminated, thus improving therapeutic outcome.
前列腺癌是男性中最常被诊断出的癌症。尽管近期在早期前列腺癌的检测方面取得了进展，但对于局部晚期和/或转移性疾病的患者，几乎没有有效的治疗方法。大多数晚期疾病患者最初对雄激素剥夺疗法有反应。然而，大多数患者随后会发展为雄激素非依赖性肿瘤，这些肿瘤不可避免地会致命。化疗和放疗治疗也会出现类似的反应。因此，按照目前的治疗策略，转移性前列腺癌仍然是一种无法治愈的疾病。最近关于癌症干细胞的报道引发了一些问题，即正常干细胞/祖细胞是否参与前列腺肿瘤生物学过程、它们对肿瘤本身的潜在贡献以及它们是否是肿瘤起始和进展的原因。尽管仍存在争议，但癌症干细胞可能是前列腺癌治疗中最关键的靶点，彻底了解其生物学特性，特别是癌症干细胞与正常干细胞的差异，可能会使其被选择性靶向并消除，从而改善治疗效果。
