State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-Sen University Guangzhou 510060, China.
Am J Cancer Res. 2012;2(3):340-56. Epub 2012 Apr 28.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been defined as cells within tumor that possess the capacity to self-renew and to cause the heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells that comprise the tumor. They have been identified in blood, breast, brain, colon, melanoma, pancreatic, prostate, ovarian, lung cancers and so on. It is often considered to be associated with chemo-resistance and radio-resistance that lead to the failure of traditional therapies. Most therapies are directed at the fast growing tumor mass but not the slow dividing cancer stem cells. Eradicating cancer stem cells, the root of cancer origin and recurrence, has been thought as a promising approach to improve cancer survival or even to cure cancer patients. Understanding the characteristics of cancer stem cells will help to develop novel therapies to eliminate the initiating cancer stem cell, and the relevant patents on the cancer stem cell and cancer therapy by cancer stem cells will be discussed.
癌症干细胞(CSC)被定义为肿瘤中具有自我更新能力并能产生构成肿瘤的异质性癌细胞谱系的细胞。它们已经在血液、乳腺、脑、结肠、黑色素瘤、胰腺、前列腺、卵巢、肺癌等中被识别。它通常被认为与化疗耐药性和放疗耐药性有关,导致传统疗法的失败。大多数治疗方法针对的是快速生长的肿瘤团块,而不是缓慢分裂的癌症干细胞。根除癌症干细胞,即癌症起源和复发的根源,被认为是改善癌症生存甚至治愈癌症患者的一种有前途的方法。了解癌症干细胞的特征将有助于开发新的疗法来消除起始癌症干细胞,并且将讨论关于癌症干细胞和癌症治疗的相关专利。