癌症干细胞和肿瘤演化的复杂性：迈向精准医学。

Complexity in cancer stem cells and tumor evolution: Toward precision medicine.

机构信息

Center for Complexity and Biosystems, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milano, Italy; Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milano, Italy.

Center for Complexity and Biosystems, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milano, Italy; Department of Physics, University of Milan, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy; Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation, Via Alassio 11/C, 10126 Torino, Italy; Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 11100, FIN-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland; CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, ICMATE, Via R. Cozzi 53, 20125 Milano, Italy.

出版信息

Semin Cancer Biol. 2017 Jun;44:3-9. doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.02.007. Epub 2017 Feb 23.

DOI:10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.02.007

PMID:28254567

Abstract

In this review, we discuss recent advances on the plasticity of cancer stem cells and highlight their relevance to understand the metastatic process and to guide therapeutic interventions. Recent results suggest that the strict hierarchical structure of cancer cell populations advocated by the cancer stem cell model must be reconsidered since the depletion of cancer stem cells leads the other tumor cells to switch back into the cancer stem cell phenotype. This plasticity has important implications for metastasis since migrating cells do not need to be cancer stem cells in order to seed a metastasis. We also discuss the important role of the immune system and the microenvironment in modulating phenotypic switching and suggest possible avenues to exploit our understanding of this process to develop an effective strategy for precision medicine.

摘要

在这篇综述中，我们讨论了癌症干细胞可塑性的最新进展，并强调了它们对于理解转移过程和指导治疗干预的相关性。最近的研究结果表明，癌症干细胞模型所倡导的癌细胞群体严格的层级结构必须重新考虑，因为癌症干细胞的耗竭会导致其他肿瘤细胞重新转变为癌症干细胞表型。这种可塑性对转移具有重要意义，因为迁移细胞不需要成为癌症干细胞就能形成转移。我们还讨论了免疫系统和微环境在调节表型转换中的重要作用，并提出了利用我们对这一过程的理解来开发精准医学有效策略的可能途径。