Bouvard Claire, Barefield Colleen, Zhu Shoutian
California Research Institute for Biomedical Research, 11119 North Torrey Pines Road, Suite 100, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Future Med Chem. 2014 Sep;6(14):1567-85. doi: 10.4155/fmc.14.106.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in a growing list of malignancies and are believed to be responsible for cancer initiation, metastasis and relapse following certain therapies, even though they may only represent a small fraction of the cells in a given cancer. Like somatic stem cells and embryonic stem cells, CSCs are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into more mature, less tumorigenic cells that make up the bulk populations of cancer cells. Elimination of CSCs promises intriguing therapeutic potential and this concept has been adopted in preclinical drug discovery programs. Herein we will discuss the progress of these efforts, general considerations in practice, major challenges and possible solutions.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）已在越来越多的恶性肿瘤中被鉴定出来，尽管它们在特定癌症中可能仅占细胞总数的一小部分，但被认为是癌症起始、转移以及某些治疗后复发的原因。与体细胞干细胞和胚胎干细胞一样，癌症干细胞能够自我更新并分化为更成熟、致瘤性更低的细胞，这些细胞构成了癌细胞的主体群体。消除癌症干细胞具有诱人的治疗潜力，这一概念已被应用于临床前药物发现项目中。在此，我们将讨论这些努力的进展、实践中的一般考虑因素、主要挑战及可能的解决方案。
