S Franco Sara, Szczesna Karolina, Iliou Maria S, Al-Qahtani Mohammed, Mobasheri Ali, Kobolák Julianna, Dinnyés András
Szent István University, Gödöllö, Hungary.
Biotalentum Ltd., Gödöllö, Hungary.
BMC Cancer. 2016 Sep 30;16(Suppl 2):738. doi: 10.1186/s12885-016-2774-3.
Cancer cells, stem cells and cancer stem cells have for a long time played a significant role in the biomedical sciences. Though cancer therapy is more effective than it was a few years ago, the truth is that still none of the current non-surgical treatments can cure cancer effectively. The reason could be due to the subpopulation called "cancer stem cells" (CSCs), being defined as those cells within a tumour that have properties of stem cells: self-renewal and the ability for differentiation into multiple cell types that occur in tumours.The phenomenon of CSCs is based on their resistance to many of the current cancer therapies, which results in tumour relapse. Although further investigation regarding CSCs is still needed, there is already evidence that these cells may play an important role in the prognosis of cancer, progression and therapeutic strategy. Therefore, long-term patient survival may depend on the elimination of CSCs. Consequently, isolation of pure CSC populations or reprogramming of cancer cells into CSCs, from cancer cell lines or primary tumours, would be a useful tool to gain an in-depth knowledge about heterogeneity and plasticity of CSC phenotypes and therefore carcinogenesis. Herein, we will discuss current CSC models, methods used to characterize CSCs, candidate markers, characteristic signalling pathways and clinical applications of CSCs. Some examples of CSC-specific treatments that are currently in early clinical phases will also be presented in this review.
癌细胞、干细胞和癌症干细胞长期以来在生物医学科学中发挥着重要作用。尽管癌症治疗比几年前更有效，但事实是目前的非手术治疗方法仍无法有效治愈癌症。原因可能在于被称为“癌症干细胞”（CSCs）的亚群，其被定义为肿瘤内具有干细胞特性的细胞：自我更新以及分化为肿瘤中多种细胞类型的能力。癌症干细胞现象基于它们对许多当前癌症治疗方法的抗性，这导致肿瘤复发。尽管仍需要对癌症干细胞进行进一步研究，但已有证据表明这些细胞可能在癌症的预后、进展和治疗策略中发挥重要作用。因此，患者的长期生存可能取决于消除癌症干细胞。因此，从癌细胞系或原发性肿瘤中分离出纯的癌症干细胞群体或将癌细胞重编程为癌症干细胞，将是深入了解癌症干细胞表型的异质性和可塑性以及致癌作用的有用工具。在此，我们将讨论当前的癌症干细胞模型、用于表征癌症干细胞的方法、候选标志物、特征性信号通路以及癌症干细胞的临床应用。本综述还将介绍一些目前处于临床早期阶段的癌症干细胞特异性治疗实例。
