Properties and feasibility of using cancer stem cells in clinical cancer treatment

• Published in: Cancer biology & medicine Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 489 - 495
• Main Authors: Xiao-Mei, Gao, Rui, Zhang, Qiong-Zhu, Dong, Lun-Xiu, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (CACA), Cancer Biology & Medicine 01.12.2016; Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China%Department of General Surgery, Huashan Hospital and Cancer Metastasis Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China; Chinese Anti-Cancer Association; China Anti-Cancer Association
• Subjects: Breast cancer; Cancer; Cancer stem cells; Cancer therapies; cancer therapy; cancers; Cell self-renewal; Drug resistance; Invasiveness; Kinases; Liver cancer; Metastases; metastasis; Mutation; Review; Stem cells; treatment failure; Tumorigenesis; 临床; 干细胞生物学; 应用; 特异性治疗; 癌症治疗; 肿瘤干细胞; 肿瘤治疗; 自我更新; cancers; cancer therapy; Cancer stem cells; metastasis; treatment failure
• ISSN: 2095-3941; 2095-3941
• DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2016.0076

Cancer treatment failure, drug resistance, or metastatic recurrence are thought to be caused mainly by the existence of a very small number of cancer stem cells（CSCs）. The characteristics of this subgroup of cells include self-renewal, tumorigenesis, multiple differentiation and high invasiveness, metastasis, and drug resistance potential. Many studies have demonstrated that CSCs play important roles in tumor growth, spread and metastatic relapse after treatment, and are closely related to the prognosis of patients.From a therapeutic viewpoint, deep insights into the CSCs biology, development of specific therapeutic strategies for targeting CSCs, and characterization of their microenvironment could be an ideal way to combat cancer.