Hakala Sofia, Hämäläinen Anna, Sandelin Sanne, Giannareas Nikolaos, Närvä Elisa
Institute of Biomedicine and FICAN West Cancer Centre Laboratory, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, FI-20520 Turku, Finland.
Cells. 2025 Jan 20;14(2):148. doi: 10.3390/cells14020148.
The existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in various tumors has become increasingly clear in addition to their prominent role in therapy resistance, metastasis, and recurrence. For early diagnosis, disease progression monitoring, and targeting, there is a high demand for clinical-grade methods for quantitative measurement of CSCs from patient samples. Despite years of active research, standard measurement of CSCs has not yet reached clinical settings, especially in the case of solid tumors. This is because detecting this plastic heterogeneous population of cells is not straightforward. This review summarizes various techniques, highlighting their benefits and limitations in detecting CSCs from patient samples. In addition, methods designed to detect CSCs based on secreted and niche-associated signaling factors are reviewed. Spatial and single-cell methods for analyzing patient tumor tissues and noninvasive techniques such as liquid biopsy and in vivo imaging are discussed. Additionally, methods recently established in laboratories, preclinical studies, and clinical assays are covered. Finally, we discuss the characteristics of an ideal method as we look toward the future.
除了在治疗耐药性、转移和复发中发挥重要作用外，各种肿瘤中癌症干细胞（CSCs）的存在也越来越清晰。对于早期诊断、疾病进展监测和靶向治疗，临床上对从患者样本中定量测量CSCs的方法有很高的需求。尽管经过多年的积极研究，CSCs的标准测量尚未进入临床应用，尤其是在实体瘤的情况下。这是因为检测这种可塑性异质细胞群体并非易事。本综述总结了各种技术，强调了它们在从患者样本中检测CSCs方面的优点和局限性。此外，还综述了基于分泌和微环境相关信号因子检测CSCs的方法。讨论了用于分析患者肿瘤组织的空间和单细胞方法以及诸如液体活检和体内成像等非侵入性技术。此外，还涵盖了最近在实验室、临床前研究和临床检测中建立的方法。最后，在展望未来时，我们讨论了理想方法的特点。
