Leukemic Stem Cells:New Thereapeutic Targets?

• 作 者: DominiqueBonnet;
• 机 构: Cancer Research UK,London Research UK
• 出 处: 中国上海第七届国际新药发明科技年会
• 发表日期: 2009年期

　　The existence of Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) with self renewal potential was first documented in leukemias (Bonnet et al,Nat Med 3∶730,1997),but has later been extended to solid tumors,including breast cancer (Al-Hajj et al.Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.100∶3983,2003).As these rare CSCs are both required and sufficient to reconstitute a new tumor,they have immediate and important clinical implications.Recent studies have shown that CSCs,as normal somatic stem cells,express high levels of multidrug resistance (MDR) pumps that efficiently effiux cytotoxic drugs,making them particular difficult to target with cytotoxic therapies.Similarly,they appear to be less immunogenic than more differentiated cancer cells in the tumor and therefore also more difficult to eradicate with immunotherapy.Thus,it has become evident,that CSCs might prove not only to be the most important but also difficult cancer cells to eliminate with conventional therapies,and that a specific monitoring and targeting of the elusive CSCs could become an important tool towards identification and characterization of improved cellular and molecular targets for development of improved cancer therapies.