Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Dis Colon Rectum. 2009 Oct;52(10):1788-96. doi: 10.1007/DCR.0b013e3181a8738c.
The cancer stem cell hypothesis predicts that only a subpopulation of cells within a tumor is responsible for driving growth. If this hypothesis were true, it would have a significant impact on our current treatment of cancer because conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy target rapidly proliferating cells making up the bulk of the tumor, not specifically cancer stem cells. The aims of this review are to highlight the current evidence supporting the existence of cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer, to consider the relative merits of current cancer stem cell markers, and to discuss the implications of this on our current treatment of cancer.
Published scientific articles were selected by searching the PubMed database by use of the terms "colorectal," "cancer," and "stem cells," and by use of the bibliographies of extracted articles.
CD133, a glycosylated cell surface protein, has been demonstrated to isolate for a subpopulation of colorectal tumor cells enriched in cancer stem cells. However, only 1 in 262 CD133+ cells are able to initiate tumors. Other cancer stem cell markers have been investigated, but an overall need exists to identify more specific markers to allow further characterization of these cancer stem cells. We discuss how increased understanding of the distribution and behavior of cancer stem cells within tumors could have significant implications for the management of colorectal cancer, including screening, resection margins, sentinel node biopsy, determination of prognosis, and the development of novel therapeutic targets.
癌症干细胞假说预测，肿瘤内只有一小部分细胞负责驱动肿瘤生长。如果这一假说成立，将对我们目前的癌症治疗产生重大影响，因为传统的化疗和放疗针对的是构成肿瘤大部分的快速增殖细胞，而不是特定的癌症干细胞。本文旨在强调目前支持结直肠癌中存在癌症干细胞的证据，考虑当前癌症干细胞标志物的相对优势，并讨论这对我们目前癌症治疗的影响。
通过在 PubMed 数据库中使用“colorectal”、“cancer”和“stem cells”等术语，以及提取文章的参考文献，搜索已发表的科学文章。
CD133 是一种糖基化的细胞表面蛋白，已被证明可以从富含癌症干细胞的结直肠肿瘤细胞亚群中分离出来。然而，只有 1/262 的 CD133+细胞能够启动肿瘤。其他癌症干细胞标志物也已经被研究过，但需要确定更特异的标志物，以进一步对这些癌症干细胞进行特征描述。我们讨论了对肿瘤内癌症干细胞的分布和行为的深入了解，如何对结直肠癌的管理产生重大影响，包括筛查、切除边缘、前哨淋巴结活检、预后判断和新的治疗靶点的开发。
