Shakib Kaveh, Schrattenholz André, Soskic Vukic
Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex HA1 3UJ, United Kingdom.
Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2011 Oct;49(7):503-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bjoms.2010.07.016. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
The existence of a small subpopulation of tumourigenic cancer stem cells in the bulk of human head and neck squamous cancers (SCC) has been recognised in recent reports. This subpopulation has self-renewal properties and is responsible for the production of differentiated daughter cells that form the bulk of the tumour. Stem cells in head and neck SCC can be identified functionally using their self-renewal properties, or by their characteristic surface markers. As their resistance to contemporary cancer treatments may eventually lead to the failure of treatment there is an urgent need to better understand their biology with the ultimate goal of developing new diagnostic markers and curative cancer treatments.
最近的报告已经认识到，在大多数人类头颈部鳞状细胞癌（SCC）中存在一小群具有致瘤性的癌症干细胞。这群细胞具有自我更新特性，并负责产生构成肿瘤主体的分化子代细胞。头颈部鳞状细胞癌中的干细胞可以通过其自我更新特性或其特征性表面标志物进行功能鉴定。由于它们对当代癌症治疗的抗性可能最终导致治疗失败，因此迫切需要更好地了解它们的生物学特性，最终目标是开发新的诊断标志物和治愈性癌症治疗方法。
