Chumsri Saranya, Matsui William, Burger Angelika M
Department of Medicine, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Nov 15;13(22 Pt 1):6549-54. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-07-1088.
An emerging concept in cancer biology is that a rare population of cancer stem cells exists among the heterogeneous cell mass that constitutes a tumor. This concept is best understood in human myeloid leukemia. Normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cell functions are defined by a common set of critical stemness genes that regulate self-renewal and developmental pathways. Several stemness factors, such as Notch or telomerase, show differential activation in normal hematopoietic versus leukemia stem cells. These differences could be exploited therapeutically even with drugs that are already in clinical use for the treatment of leukemia. The translation of novel and existing leukemic stem cell-directed therapies into clinical practice, however, will require changes in clinical trial design and the inclusion of stem cell biomarkers as correlative end points.
癌症生物学中一个新兴的概念是，在构成肿瘤的异质性细胞群体中存在着罕见的癌症干细胞群。这一概念在人类髓系白血病中得到了最好的理解。正常和恶性造血干细胞的功能由一组共同的关键干性基因定义，这些基因调节自我更新和发育途径。一些干性因子，如Notch或端粒酶，在正常造血干细胞与白血病干细胞中表现出不同的激活状态。即使使用已经在临床上用于治疗白血病的药物，这些差异也可以用于治疗。然而，将新型和现有的针对白血病干细胞的疗法转化为临床实践，将需要改变临床试验设计，并纳入干细胞生物标志物作为相关终点。
