Laboratory for Oxidative Stress, Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Laboratory for Hereditary Cancer, Division of Molecular Medicine, Ruđer Bošković Institute, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 26;24(13):10683. doi: 10.3390/ijms241310683.
Breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) are among the most common and deadly cancers affecting women worldwide. Both are complex diseases with marked heterogeneity. Despite the induction of screening programs that increase the frequency of earlier diagnosis of BC, at a stage when the cancer is more likely to respond to therapy, which does not exist for OC, more than 50% of both cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Initial therapy can put the cancer into remission. However, recurrences occur frequently in both BC and OC, which are highly cancer-subtype dependent. Therapy resistance is mainly attributed to a rare subpopulation of cells, named cancer stem cells (CSC) or tumor-initiating cells, as they are capable of self-renewal, tumor initiation, and regrowth of tumor bulk. In this review, we will discuss the distinctive markers and signaling pathways that characterize CSC, their interactions with the tumor microenvironment, and the strategies they employ to evade immune surveillance. Our focus will be on identifying the common features of breast cancer stem cells (BCSC) and ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSC) and suggesting potential therapeutic approaches.
乳腺癌（BC）和卵巢癌（OC）是全球范围内最常见和最致命的女性癌症之一。这两种疾病都是复杂的疾病，具有明显的异质性。尽管筛查计划的引入增加了 BC 更早诊断的频率，在癌症更有可能对治疗产生反应的阶段，但 OC 没有这样的筛查计划，超过 50%的 BC 和 OC 都是在晚期诊断出来的。初始治疗可以使癌症缓解。然而，BC 和 OC 经常复发，这高度依赖于癌症亚型。治疗耐药性主要归因于一小部分细胞，称为癌症干细胞（CSC）或肿瘤起始细胞，因为它们能够自我更新、肿瘤起始和肿瘤块的再生长。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论特征性的标志物和信号通路，这些标志物和信号通路可以区分 CSC，以及它们与肿瘤微环境的相互作用，以及它们逃避免疫监视的策略。我们的重点将放在确定乳腺癌干细胞（BCSC）和卵巢癌干细胞（OCSC）的共同特征，并提出潜在的治疗方法。
