Colorectal cancer defeating? Challenge accepted!
Colorectal tumours are actually considered as aberrant organs, within it is possible to notice a different stage of cell growth and differentiation. Their origin is reported to arise from a subpopulation of tumour cells endowed with, just like the healthy stem cells, self-renewal and aberrant multi-lineage differentiation capacity likely to be called colorectal cancer stem cells (CCSCs). Cancer stem cells (CSCs) fate, since their origin, reflects the influences from their microenvironment (or niche) both in the maintenance of stemness, in promoting their differentiation, and in inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition, responsible of CSCs dissemination and subsequent formation of metastatic lesions. The tumour cells heterogeneity and their immuno-response resistance nowadays probably responsible of the failure of the conventional therapies, make this research field an open issue. Even more importantly, our increasing understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate CSC quiescence and cell cycle regulation, self-renewal, chemotaxis and resistance to cytotoxic agents, is expected to eventually result in tailor-made therapies with a significant impact on the morbidity and overall survival of colorectal cancer patients.
Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Liborio Giuffre' 5, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
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Di Franco
Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Liborio Giuffre' 5, 90127 Palermo, Italy.
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Todaro
Division of Immunology and Immunogenetics, Department of Biotechnology and Medical and Forensic Biopathological (DIBIMEF), Palermo, Italy.
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Dieli
Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Liborio Giuffre' 5, 90127 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: giorgio.stassi@unipa.it.
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Stassi
D000818:Animals; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
Cancer stem cell; Colorectal cancer; Immune system; Individualized therapy; Targeting; Tumour microenvironment