肿瘤干细胞的认知历程与研发热点

肿瘤组织中存在一小群能够自我更新、增殖和分化,对肿瘤的发生、发展、复发、转移起决定作用的细胞,即肿瘤干细胞（cancer stem cells,CSCs）。在传统理论方法已不能攻克癌症的情况下,肿瘤干细胞理论为我们重新认识肿瘤的起源和本质提供了新的方向和视角。从20世纪50年代至今,随着生物技术的发展,肿瘤干细胞理论经历了从设想到验证的漫长历程。但该理论自提出之日起便受到来自各方面不同观点的质疑。当今针对肿瘤干细胞癌症治疗主要集中在靶向问题上。因此,寻找特异的肿瘤干细胞标志物,探索肿瘤干细胞与周围微环境间的复杂关系以及发现调控其功能的关键信号通路成为当前研究的热点。

Progress in cancer stem cell research

Tumours consisit of a minority subpopulation of tumor cells （cancer stem cells, CSCs） with stemness properties such as self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation, which is responsible for tumor occurrence, growth and metastasis. In the context of failure in conventional anti-tumor treatments, the theroy about cancer stem cell provides a new insight to recognise origin and essence of tumours. From 1950s to the present, this theroy has experienced from idea to validation with development in biotechnology. However, since the proposition of cancer stem cell theory, the opposite opinion has exited. Current researches are mainly focusing on targeting strategies, such as in search of specific markers, complex relationships between CSCs and their niche, and mechanism of key pathways that regulate CSCs functions.