Departamento de Física, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 7;8(8):e69131. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0069131. eCollection 2013.
A controversy surrounds the frequency of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in solid tumors. Initial studies indicated that these cells had a frequency ranging from 0.0001 to 0.1% of the total cells. Recent studies have shown that this does not always seem to be the case. Some of these studies have indicated a frequency of [Formula: see text]. In this paper we propose a stochastic model that is able to capture this potential variability in the frequency of CSCs among the various type of tumors. Considerations regarding the heterogeneity of the tumor cells and its consequences are included. Possible effects on conventional treatments in clinical practice are also described. The model results suggest that traditional attempts to combat cancer cells with rapid cycling can be very stimulating for the cancer stem cell populations.
癌症干细胞（CSC）在实体瘤中的频率存在争议。最初的研究表明，这些细胞在总细胞中的频率范围为 0.0001 到 0.1%。最近的研究表明，情况并非总是如此。其中一些研究表明频率为[公式：见正文]。在本文中，我们提出了一个随机模型，能够捕捉到各种类型肿瘤中 CSC 频率的这种潜在可变性。还考虑了肿瘤细胞的异质性及其后果。还描述了对临床实践中常规治疗的可能影响。模型结果表明，用快速循环的癌细胞来对抗癌症的传统尝试可能会对癌症干细胞群体产生非常大的刺激。
