肿瘤干细胞的生物学特性及临床意义的研究进展

研究表明肿瘤干细胞（cancer stem cells，CSC）起源于正常干细胞（stem cells，SC）的基因突变，SC的DNA受到损伤或处于与肿瘤相关的微环境是其发生基因突变，进而转化为CSC的主要原因。CSC可与肿瘤细胞相互转化，且与肿瘤细胞相比，其增殖和转移的速度更快，恶性程度更高，对化疗和放疗的耐受性更强。不同肿瘤的CSC生物学标记并不完全相同，即使是同一类肿瘤，因细胞系不同，生物学标记也有差异。CSC的生物学标记物也可以用于CSC的诊断、肿瘤的预后判断和治疗。因此，探索CSC的生物学标记和调控因子，并将其作为肿瘤的治疗靶标，开发相关的药物，将是未来CSC和肿瘤研究的重点。本文主要对肿瘤干细胞的起源、生物学特性及其临床意义进行了综述。

Research Progress on the Biological Characteristics and Clinical Significance of Cancer Stem Cells

Studies had shown that cancer stem cell（CSC） was derived from gene mutation of normal stem cells（SC）. The DNA damage of SC or SC under tumor related microenvironment became the major causes of gene mutation of SC and further trans-formation to CSC. CSCs and tumor cells could be reciprocally transformed. However, compared with tumor cells, CSCs had much quicker speed of proliferation and migration. The higher the malignant grade, the stronger its resistance was to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The biomarkers of CSC from different kinds of tumors were not completely the same, even the same kind of tumor of different cell lines could have different biomarkers. The biomarkers of CSC could be used for the diagnosis, prognostic predic-tion and treatment of tumors. Thus, it becomes the key point to investigate the biomarkers and mediators of CSC, to apply these biomarkers as the targets of tumor treatment and development of related drugs in CSC and tumor research field in the future. This article mainly reviewed the research progress on the biological characteristics and clinical significance of cancer stem cells.