Medical Oncology Unit, Mediterranean Institute of Oncology, 95029 Viagrande, Italy.
Department of Biomedical, Dental, Morphological and Functional Imaging Sciences, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Sep 25;12(10):1502. doi: 10.3390/genes12101502.
Rectal cancer (RC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed and particularly challenging tumours to treat due to its location in the pelvis and close proximity to critical genitourinary organs. Radiotherapy (RT) is recognised as a key component of therapeutic strategy to treat RC, promoting the downsizing and downstaging of large RCs in neoadjuvant settings, although its therapeutic effect is limited due to radioresistance. Evidence from experimental and clinical studies indicates that the likelihood of achieving local tumour control by RT depends on the complete eradication of cancer stem cells (CSC), a minority subset of tumour cells with stemness properties.
A systematic literature review was conducted by querying two scientific databases (Pubmed and Scopus). The search was restricted to papers published from 2009 to 2021.
After assessing the quality and the risk of bias, a total of 11 studies were selected as they mainly focused on biomarkers predictive of RT-response in CSCs isolated from patients affected by RC. Specifically these studies showed that elevated levels of CD133, CD44, ALDH1, Lgr5 and G9a are associated with RT-resistance and poor prognosis.
This review aimed to provide an overview of the current scenario of in vitro and in vivo studies evaluating the biomarkers predictive of RT-response in CSCs derived from RC patients.
直肠癌（RC）是最常见的诊断之一，由于其位于骨盆内，靠近重要的泌尿生殖器官，因此治疗极具挑战性。放疗（RT）被认为是治疗 RC 的治疗策略的关键组成部分，可促进新辅助治疗中大型 RC 的缩小和降级，尽管由于放射抗性，其治疗效果有限。来自实验和临床研究的证据表明，通过 RT 实现局部肿瘤控制的可能性取决于能否彻底消除具有干性特征的肿瘤细胞的一小部分——癌症干细胞（CSC）。
通过查询两个科学数据库（PubMed 和 Scopus）进行系统文献综述。搜索范围限于 2009 年至 2021 年发表的论文。
在评估了质量和偏倚风险后，共选择了 11 项研究，因为它们主要集中在预测 RC 患者来源的 CSCs 对 RT 反应的生物标志物上。具体来说，这些研究表明，CD133、CD44、ALDH1、Lgr5 和 G9a 的水平升高与 RT 耐药性和预后不良相关。
本综述旨在概述评估源自 RC 患者的 CSCs 对 RT 反应的生物标志物的体外和体内研究的现状。
