Cancer Stem Cells: Targeting the Roots of Cancer, Seeds of Metastasis, and Sources of Therapy Resistance

摘要

Abstract With the goal to remove the roots of cancer, eliminate metastatic seeds, and overcome therapy resistance, the 2014 inaugural International Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) Conference at Cleveland, OH, convened together over 320 investigators, including 55 invited world-class speakers, 25 short oral presenters, and 100 poster presenters, to gain an in-depth understanding of CSCs and explore therapeutic opportunities targeting CSCs. The meeting enabled intriguing discussions on several topics including: genetics and epigenetics; cancer origin and evolution; microenvironment and exosomes; metabolism and inflammation; metastasis and therapy resistance; single cell and heterogeneity; plasticity and reprogramming; as well as other new concepts. Reports of clinical trials targeting CSCs emphasized the urgent need for strategically designing combinational CSC-targeting therapies against cancer. Cancer Stem Cell Overview As early as 1937, Furth and Kahn successfully transplanted leukemia with a single mouse leukemic cell (1), showing the first evidence of stem cell-like cancer cells, now termed cancer stem cells (CSC) or tumor-initiating cells (TIC). Dr. John Dick's group transplanted and identified human leukemic stem cells (LSC) in the 1990s (2, 3). The continued cornerstones of identifying CSCs in human solid tumors, breast (4) and brain (5), led to the emerging field of cancer stem cell research with new prospects to understand and the hope of eliminating cancer (6, 7).