Fukumoto Chonji, Uchida Daisuke, Kawamata Hitoshi
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dokkyo Medical University School of Medicine, 880 Kitakobayashi, Shimo-Tsuga, Mibu 321-0293, Tochigi, Japan.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, 454 Shitsukawa, Toon 791-0295, Ehime, Japan.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Jul 22;14(15):3588. doi: 10.3390/cancers14153588.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) histopathologically accounts for ≥90% of oral cancer. Many clinicopathological risk factors for OSCC have also been proposed, and postoperative therapy is recommended in guidelines based on cancer stage and other risk factors. However, even if the standard treatment is provided according to the guidelines, a few cases rapidly recur or show cervical and distant metastasis. In this review article, we focus on the diversity of the origin of OSCC. We also discuss cancer stem cells (CSCs) as a key player to explain the malignancy of OSCC. CSCs are a subset of cancer cells that occupy a very small portion of the cancer mass and have characteristics of stem cells. When gene abnormalities accumulate in somatic stem cells, those cells transform into CSCs. CSCs as the origin of cancer then autonomously grow and develop into cancer. The histopathological phenotype of cancer cells is determined by the original characteristics of the somatic stem cells and/or surrounding environment. OSCC may be divided into the following three categories with different malignancy based on the origin of CSCs: cancer from oral epithelial stem cell-derived CSCs, cancer from stem cells in salivary gland-derived CSCs, and cancer from bone marrow-derived stem cell-derived CSCs.
口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）在组织病理学上占口腔癌的≥90%。人们还提出了许多OSCC的临床病理危险因素，并且指南根据癌症分期和其他危险因素推荐术后治疗。然而，即使按照指南提供标准治疗，仍有少数病例会迅速复发或出现颈部和远处转移。在这篇综述文章中，我们关注OSCC起源的多样性。我们还讨论了癌症干细胞（CSCs）作为解释OSCC恶性程度的关键因素。CSCs是癌细胞的一个亚群，在癌组织中所占比例非常小，并具有干细胞的特征。当基因异常在体干细胞中积累时，这些细胞会转化为CSCs。作为癌症起源的CSCs随后自主生长并发展成癌症。癌细胞的组织病理表型由体干细胞的原始特征和/或周围环境决定。根据CSCs的起源，OSCC可分为以下三类，其恶性程度不同：源自口腔上皮干细胞的CSCs的癌症、源自唾液腺干细胞的CSCs的癌症以及源自骨髓干细胞的CSCs的癌症。
