Department of Dermatology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA.
Br J Dermatol. 2011 Apr;164(4):696-711. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2010.10158.x. Epub 2011 Mar 16.
Cancer stem cells have recently been described in several high-grade neoplasms. It is still unclear if they also occur in cutaneous malignancies. Cancer stem cells are not identical with somatic stem cells. The presence of tumour stem cells in a neoplasm does not in itself equal that the tumour derives from a somatic stem cell. A cell originally lacking stem cell characteristics could also acquire those features during the course of carcinogenesis and then becomes the clonal founder cell of a tumour. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common cutaneous malignancy. A plethora of various stem cell markers has been applied to study its cellular origin. Intriguingly, the anatomical origin of BCC is still uncertain. This review will discuss the various stem cell markers used in BCC and the cellular origin of this tumour, and touches briefly on the possibility of cancer stem cells in BCC. If BCC or other skin cancers harbour tumour stem cells, these cells could be specifically targeted, making use of specific cell surface molecules such as receptor proteins. Novel drugs directed against those receptor proteins could replace currently available shotgun approaches including imiquimod.
近年来，在几种高级别肿瘤中已经描述了癌症干细胞。它们是否也存在于皮肤恶性肿瘤中尚不清楚。癌症干细胞与体干细胞并不完全相同。肿瘤中存在肿瘤干细胞并不等同于肿瘤源自体干细胞。最初缺乏干细胞特征的细胞也可能在癌变过程中获得这些特征，然后成为肿瘤的克隆起始细胞。基底细胞癌 (BCC) 是最常见的皮肤恶性肿瘤。已经应用了大量各种干细胞标志物来研究其细胞起源。有趣的是，BCC 的解剖学起源仍然不确定。这篇综述将讨论用于 BCC 的各种干细胞标志物以及该肿瘤的细胞起源，并简要探讨 BCC 中癌症干细胞的可能性。如果 BCC 或其他皮肤癌含有肿瘤干细胞，那么可以利用特定的细胞表面分子（如受体蛋白）来专门靶向这些细胞。针对这些受体蛋白的新型药物可以替代目前可用的包括咪喹莫特在内的广谱治疗方法。
