在过去的十年中,肿瘤干细胞(cancer stem cell/tumor—initiating cell,CSC/TIC)虽然受到广泛重视,但也是争论的焦点。如何正确认识CSCs假说,以及CSCs的生物学特点和CSCs的治疗应用这些问题都存在巨大的争议。该文对CSCS的起源、分离鉴定的方法,以及信号通路、微环境等对cSCS的调控关系,肿瘤的最佳治疗途径等问题进行综述。
The investigation and study of cancer stem cells (CSCs) have received enormous attention over the past decade but remain topics of considerable controversy. Opinions about the validity of the CSC hypothesis, the biological properties of CSCs, and the relevance of CSCs to cancer therapy differ widely. In the following text, we discuss the origin, the identification, regulatory pathway, microenviroment and the new potential therapeutic targets elucidated by considering cancer as a problem in stem cell biology.