Francipane Maria Giovanna, Chandler Julie, Lagasse Eric
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA ; RiMed Foundation, 90133 Palermo, Italy.
Curr Pathobiol Rep. 2013 Jun 1;1(2):111-118. doi: 10.1007/s40139-013-0010-2.
Even though the number of anti-cancer drugs entering clinical trials and approved by the FDA has increased in recent years, many cancer patients still experience poor survival outcome. The main explanation for such a dismal prognosis is that current therapies might leave behind a population of cancer cells with the capacity for long-term self-renewal, so-called cancer stem cells (CSCs), from which most tumors are believed to be derived and fueled. CSCs might favor local and distant recurrence even many years after initial treatment, thus representing a potential target for therapies aimed at improving clinical outcome. In this review, we will address the CSC hypothesis with a particular emphasis on its current paradigms and debates, and discuss several mechanisms of CSC resistance to conventional therapies.
尽管近年来进入临床试验并获得美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的抗癌药物数量有所增加，但许多癌症患者的生存结局仍然不佳。对于如此糟糕的预后，主要解释是当前的治疗方法可能会留下一群具有长期自我更新能力的癌细胞，即所谓的癌症干细胞（CSCs），大多数肿瘤被认为起源于此并由其驱动生长。即使在初始治疗多年后，癌症干细胞仍可能导致局部和远处复发，因此是旨在改善临床结局的治疗的潜在靶点。在本综述中，我们将探讨癌症干细胞假说，特别强调其当前的模式和争议，并讨论癌症干细胞对传统疗法耐药的几种机制。
