Malik Babar, Nie Daotai
Department of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Simmons Cancer Institute, Springfield, IL 62794-9626, USA.
Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2012 Jan 1;4(6):2142-9. doi: 10.2741/531.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs, or tumor initiating cells) are responsible for tumor initiation. If cancer treatment kills most of cancer cells in the stage of transit amplifying and differentiation without killing the stem cells, the surviving CSCs will eventually lead to recurrence of tumors. Studies have suggested that CSCs may be the primary mediators of resistance to chemo- and radio-therapy, leading to failure in cancer therapy. Numerous targets are being investigated for their potential involvement in the self-renewal and chemo- and radio-resistance of cancer cells. However, despite the intensive efforts invested into characterizing the role of cancer stem cells, there is a sense of uncertainty regarding the identity and number of these cells as well as the implications in cancer treatment. In this review, we will discuss the identification of CSCs by cell surface markers, the biology of CSCs, and the role of CSCs in resistance to radio- and chemo-therapy. This review will discuss the advances in targeting CSCs to improve the efficacy of chemo- and radio-therapy.
癌症干细胞（CSCs，即肿瘤起始细胞）负责肿瘤的起始。如果癌症治疗在过渡扩增和分化阶段杀死了大多数癌细胞，却没有杀死干细胞，那么存活下来的癌症干细胞最终将导致肿瘤复发。研究表明，癌症干细胞可能是对化疗和放疗产生抗性的主要介导因素，从而导致癌症治疗失败。目前正在研究众多靶点，以探究它们在癌细胞自我更新以及对化疗和放疗抗性方面的潜在作用。然而，尽管在确定癌症干细胞的作用方面投入了大量精力，但对于这些细胞的身份、数量以及在癌症治疗中的意义仍存在不确定性。在本综述中，我们将讨论通过细胞表面标志物鉴定癌症干细胞、癌症干细胞的生物学特性以及癌症干细胞在放疗和化疗抗性中的作用。本综述还将讨论靶向癌症干细胞以提高化疗和放疗疗效方面的进展。
