Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology (IEO), 20139 Milan, Italy.
J Oncol. 2012;2012:376894. doi: 10.1155/2012/376894. Epub 2012 May 23.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) were isolated in multiple tumor types, including human glioblastomas, and although the presence of surface markers selectively expressed on CSCs can be used to isolate them, no marker/pattern of markers are sufficiently robust to definitively identify stem cells in tumors. Several markers were evaluated for their prognostic value with promising early results, however none of them was proven to be clinically useful in large-scale studies, leading to outstanding efforts to identify new markers. Given the heterogeneity of human glioblastomas further investigations are necessary to identify both cancer stem cell-specific markers and the molecular mechanisms sustaining the tumorigenic potential of these cells to develop tailored treatments. Markers for glioblastoma stem cells such as CD133, CD15, integrin-α6, L1CAM might be informative to identify these cells but cannot be conclusively linked to a stem cell phenotype. Overlap of expression, functional state and morphology of different subpopulations lead to carefully consider the techniques employed so far to isolate these cells. Due to a dearth of methods and markers reliably identifying the candidate cancer stem cells, the isolation/enrichment of cancer stem cells to be therapeutically targeted remains a major challenge.
癌症干细胞 (CSC) 已在多种肿瘤类型中被分离出来，包括人类脑胶质瘤，尽管可以使用选择性表达在 CSC 上的表面标志物来分离它们，但没有一种标志物/标志物模式足够强大，可以明确鉴定肿瘤中的干细胞。已经评估了几种标记物的预后价值，早期结果有希望，但在大规模研究中没有一种被证明具有临床实用性，因此需要付出巨大努力来识别新的标记物。鉴于人类脑胶质瘤的异质性，需要进一步研究以鉴定癌症干细胞特异性标记物和维持这些细胞肿瘤发生潜力的分子机制，以开发针对性的治疗方法。用于鉴定脑胶质瘤干细胞的标志物，如 CD133、CD15、整合素-α6、L1CAM，可能有助于识别这些细胞，但不能明确与干细胞表型相关联。不同亚群的表达、功能状态和形态的重叠导致需要仔细考虑迄今为止用于分离这些细胞的技术。由于缺乏可靠地鉴定候选癌症干细胞的方法和标志物，因此，分离/富集癌症干细胞以进行治疗性靶向仍然是一个主要挑战。
