Chow Edward Kai-Hua
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
J Lab Autom. 2013 Feb;18(1):6-11. doi: 10.1177/2211068212454739. Epub 2012 Aug 14.
Conventional therapy against cancer by chemotherapy and radiation therapy has proven successful at decreasing bulk tumor size when cancer is diagnosed early enough. These therapeutic approaches, however, often result in recurrence years later. A number of studies have begun to identify a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells that may be critical to early tumorigenesis and subsequent recurrence. These cells have been termed cancer stem cells (CSCs) and have been demonstrated to have properties of self-renewal, differentiation into other tumor cell types, and enhanced drug resistance. Given the growing body of evidence that CSCs play a key role in tumor biology in many cancer types, it is important to take into account the properties of these cells when developing novel cancer drugs and designing enhanced methods of drug delivery. This review covers some of the mechanisms by which CSCs escape conventional therapy as well as the potential approaches to targeting CSCs that may be used during cancer drug development.
当癌症在足够早的阶段被诊断出来时，通过化疗和放疗进行的传统癌症治疗已被证明在减小肿瘤体积方面是成功的。然而，这些治疗方法往往会在数年之后导致复发。一些研究已开始鉴定出一群肿瘤起始细胞，它们可能对早期肿瘤发生及随后的复发至关重要。这些细胞被称为癌症干细胞（CSCs），并且已被证明具有自我更新、分化为其他肿瘤细胞类型以及增强的耐药性等特性。鉴于越来越多的证据表明CSCs在许多癌症类型的肿瘤生物学中起关键作用，在开发新型抗癌药物和设计增强的药物递送方法时，考虑这些细胞的特性很重要。本综述涵盖了CSCs逃避传统治疗的一些机制以及在癌症药物开发期间可能用于靶向CSCs的潜在方法。
