Department of Cell Biology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen 9700 RB, The Netherlands; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen 9700 RB, The Netherlands; Department of Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen 9700 RB, The Netherlands.
Department of Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen 9700 RB, The Netherlands.
Semin Cancer Biol. 2017 Jun;44:60-66. doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.03.010. Epub 2017 Mar 30.
Esophageal cancers (EC) are highly aggressive tumors, commonly presented in a locally advanced stage with a poor prognosis and survival. Up to 50% of the patients are eligible for treatment with curative intent and receive the standard treatment with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and surgery. Currently, pathologic complete response to nCRT is 20-30%, with a partial or no response in about 50% and 20%, respectively. EC recurrences occur frequently even after successful anti-cancer treatment, suggesting high aggressiveness with increased metastatic potential. A tumor sub-population of so-called cancer stem cells (CSCs), is known to display a high metastatic potential and resistance to conventional anti-cancer therapy, hereby being responsible for the unbeneficial clinical features. In this review, a concise overview will be given of the current literature on esophageal CSCs and related metastases. Esophageal CSC markers will be discussed followed by the pathways that initiate and sustain these cells. In addition, the cellular processes, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), hypoxia and autophagy, known to contribute to cancer stemness and metastasis will be explained. Finally, potential options for treatment also related to cancer genome atlas (TCGA) data on EC will be discussed.
食管癌（EC）是高度侵袭性的肿瘤，通常处于局部晚期，预后和生存率较差。多达 50%的患者有资格接受以治愈为目的的治疗，并接受新辅助放化疗（nCRT）和手术的标准治疗。目前，nCRT 的病理完全缓解率为 20-30%，部分缓解或无缓解率分别约为 50%和 20%。即使在成功的抗癌治疗后，食管癌仍经常复发，这表明其具有较高的侵袭性和转移潜能。所谓的癌症干细胞（CSC）的肿瘤亚群，已知具有较高的转移潜能和对常规抗癌治疗的耐药性，因此是导致不良临床特征的原因。在这篇综述中，将简要概述目前关于食管 CSC 及其相关转移的文献。将讨论食管 CSC 标志物，然后是启动和维持这些细胞的途径。此外，还将解释已知有助于癌症干细胞特性和转移的细胞过程，上皮-间充质转化（EMT）、缺氧和自噬。最后，还将讨论与食管癌癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）数据相关的潜在治疗选择。
