Mittal Sahil, Mifflin Randy, Powell Don W
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0764, USA.
Am J Med Sci. 2009 Aug;338(2):107-12. doi: 10.1097/MAJ.0b013e3181ad5865.
Advances in the field of stem cell biology have provided renewed hopes that stem cells can be used to treat a wide range of genetic diseases and traumatic injuries. However, advances in the field of cancer cell biology have led to formulation of the cancer stem cell hypothesis, which posits that cancers arise from mutant stem cells. Further, this hypothesis proposes that these stem cells account for cancer recurrence, metastasis, and resistance to conventional treatments. Thus, although normal stem cells represent potential effective solutions to numerous clinical problems, when mutated, they may also represent the cause of many human malignancies.
干细胞生物学领域的进展为利用干细胞治疗多种遗传疾病和创伤性损伤带来了新的希望。然而，癌细胞生物学领域的进展催生了癌症干细胞假说，该假说认为癌症起源于突变的干细胞。此外，这一假说提出这些干细胞是癌症复发、转移以及对传统治疗产生抗性的原因。因此，尽管正常干细胞是众多临床问题潜在的有效解决方案，但发生突变时，它们也可能是许多人类恶性肿瘤的病因。
