Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Division of Biological Systems and Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Adv Cancer Res. 2019;144:315-341. doi: 10.1016/bs.acr.2019.03.010. Epub 2019 Jun 13.
Since the introduction of the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis, accumulating evidence shows that most cancers present stem-like niches. However, therapies aimed at targeting this niche have not been as successful as expected. New evidence regarding CSCs hierarchy, similarities with normal tissue stem cells and cell plasticity might be key in understanding their role in cancer biology and how to efficiently eliminate them. In this Chapter, we discuss what is known in breast and prostate CSCs from their initial discoveries to the current therapeutic efforts in the field. Future challenges towards better CSC identification and isolation strategies will be key to shed light into how CSCs could accurately be targeted in combination to traditional therapies to ultimately prolong patient survival.
自从癌症干细胞（CSC）假说提出以来，越来越多的证据表明，大多数癌症都存在类似干细胞的生态位。然而，旨在针对这一生态位的治疗方法并没有像预期的那样成功。关于 CSC 等级、与正常组织干细胞的相似性和细胞可塑性的新证据可能是理解它们在癌症生物学中的作用以及如何有效消除它们的关键。在这一章中，我们将讨论从最初发现到目前在该领域的治疗努力，人们对乳腺癌和前列腺癌 CSC 的了解。未来，更好地识别和分离 CSC 的策略将是关键，这将有助于阐明如何将 CSC 与传统疗法相结合进行精确靶向，从而最终延长患者的生存时间。
