Zhou Bin-Bing S, Zhang Haiying, Damelin Marc, Geles Kenneth G, Grindley Justin C, Dirks Peter B
Oncology Discovery, Wyeth Research, 401 North Middletown Road, Pearl River, New York 10965, USA.
Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2009 Oct;8(10):806-23. doi: 10.1038/nrd2137.
The hypothesis that cancer is driven by tumour-initiating cells (popularly known as cancer stem cells) has recently attracted a great deal of attention, owing to the promise of a novel cellular target for the treatment of haematopoietic and solid malignancies. Furthermore, it seems that tumour-initiating cells might be resistant to many conventional cancer therapies, which might explain the limitations of these agents in curing human malignancies. Although much work is still needed to identify and characterize tumour-initiating cells, efforts are now being directed towards identifying therapeutic strategies that could target these cells. This Review considers recent advances in the cancer stem cell field, focusing on the challenges and opportunities for anticancer drug discovery.
癌症由肿瘤起始细胞（通常称为癌症干细胞）驱动这一假说，近来备受关注，这是因为它有望成为治疗血液系统恶性肿瘤和实体瘤的新型细胞靶点。此外，肿瘤起始细胞似乎可能对许多传统癌症疗法具有抗性，这或许可以解释这些药物在治愈人类恶性肿瘤方面的局限性。尽管在识别和表征肿瘤起始细胞方面仍需开展大量工作，但目前正致力于寻找能够靶向这些细胞的治疗策略。本综述探讨了癌症干细胞领域的最新进展，重点关注抗癌药物研发面临的挑战和机遇。
