Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Front Oncol. 2013 Mar 18;3:52. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2013.00052. eCollection 2013.
Cancer stem cells (CSC) are considered to be a major driver of cancer progression and successful therapies must control CSCs. However, CSC are often less sensitive to treatment and they might survive radiation and/or chemotherapies. In this paper we combine radiation treatment with differentiation therapy. During differentiation therapy, a differentiation promoting agent is supplied (e.g., TGF-beta) such that CSCs differentiate and become more radiosensitive. Then radiation can be used to control them. We consider three types of cancer: head and neck cancer, brain cancers (primary tumors and metastatic brain cancers), and breast cancer; and we use mathematical modeling to show that combination therapy of the above type can have a large beneficial effect for the patient; increasing treatment success and reducing side effects.
癌症干细胞（CSC）被认为是癌症进展的主要驱动因素，因此成功的治疗方法必须控制 CSC。然而，CSC 通常对治疗的敏感性较低，它们可能在放疗和/或化疗后存活。在本文中，我们将放疗与分化疗法相结合。在分化疗法期间，提供促进分化的药物（例如 TGF-β），使得 CSC 分化并变得对放疗更敏感。然后可以使用放疗来控制它们。我们考虑了三种癌症：头颈部癌症、脑癌（原发性肿瘤和转移性脑癌）和乳腺癌；并使用数学建模表明，上述类型的联合治疗对患者有很大的有益效果；提高治疗成功率并减少副作用。
