Lee Che-Hsin, Yu Cheng-Chia, Wang Bing-Yen, Chang Wen-Wei
Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Science, School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
Oncotarget. 2016 Jan 12;7(2):1215-26. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.6261.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a sub-population of cells within cancer tissues with tumor initiation, drug resistance and metastasis properties. CSCs also have been considered as the main cause of cancer recurrence. Targeting CSCs have been suggested as the key for successful treatment against cancer. Tumorsphere cultivation is based on culturing cancer cells onto ultralow attachment surface in serum-free media under the supplementation with growth factors such as epidermal growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor. Tumorsphere cultivation is widely used to analyze the self-renewal capability of CSCs and to enrich these cells from bulk cancer cells. This method also provides a reliable platform for screening potential anti-CSC agents. The in vitro anti-proliferation activity of potential agents selected from tumorsphere assay is more translatable into in vivo anti-tumorigenic activity compared with general monolayer culture. Tumorsphere assay can also measure the outcome of clinical trials for potential anti-cancer agents. In addition, tumorsphere assay may be a promising strategy in the innovation of future cancer therapeutica and may help in the screening of anti-cancer small-molecule chemicals.
癌症干细胞（CSCs）是癌症组织中的一类细胞亚群，具有肿瘤起始、耐药和转移特性。癌症干细胞也被认为是癌症复发的主要原因。靶向癌症干细胞被认为是成功治疗癌症的关键。肿瘤球培养是将癌细胞接种在超低附着表面，在无血清培养基中添加表皮生长因子和碱性成纤维细胞生长因子等生长因子进行培养。肿瘤球培养被广泛用于分析癌症干细胞的自我更新能力，并从大量癌细胞中富集这些细胞。该方法还为筛选潜在的抗癌症干细胞药物提供了可靠的平台。与普通单层培养相比，从肿瘤球试验中筛选出的潜在药物的体外抗增殖活性更能转化为体内抗肿瘤活性。肿瘤球试验还可以评估潜在抗癌药物的临床试验结果。此外，肿瘤球试验可能是未来癌症治疗创新中一种有前景的策略，有助于筛选抗癌小分子化学物质。
