肿瘤干细胞假说是近年来提出的关于肿瘤发生的新理论,该理论认为肿瘤组织中仅有一小部分细胞可以产生肿瘤并且维持肿瘤生长。在体内外如何鉴定这种具有启动以及保持肿瘤生长的细胞类型,成为肿瘤基础及应用研究的关键问题。目前已经在白血病、乳腺癌、神经胶质瘤等肿瘤中成功鉴定并分离出肿瘤干细胞,这对于肿瘤的临床治疗具有重要意义。本文主要从肿瘤干细胞的鉴定及其在临床研究中的应用等方面进行综述。
The hypothesis of cancer stem cell is a novel theory that has been proposed recently about tumorigenesis.The theory holds the concept that only a small number of cancer cells among tumor cell population can promote and sustain tumor.Identification of the cell types capable of initiating and sustaining growth of the tumor in vivo and in vitro is a crucial problem in cancer research.At present,researchers have successfully identified and isolated the cancer stem cells from some tumors such as leukemia,breast cancer,glioma,etc..This method is of great significance to cancer clinical study.The paper will review the identified methods of cancer stem cells and the application of cancer stem cells in clinical research.