title: Immune responses to human cancer stem-like cells/cancer-initiating cells.
abstract: Cancer stem-like cells (CSC)/cancer-initiating cells (CIC) are defined as minor subpopulations of cancer cells that are endowed with properties of higher tumor-initiating ability, self-renewal ability and differentiation ability. Accumulating results of recent studies have revealed that CSC/CIC are resistant to standard cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and molecular targeting therapy, and eradiation of CSC/CIC is, thus, critical to cure cancer. Cancer immunotherapy is expected to become the "fourth" cancer therapy. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) play an essential role in immune responses to cancers, and CTL can recognize CSC/CIC in an antigen-specific manner. CSC/CIC express several tumor-associated antigens (TAA), and cancer testis (CT) antigens are reasonable sources for CSC/CIC-targeting immunotherapy. In this review article, we discuss CSC/CIC recognition by CTL, regulation of immune systems by CSC/CIC, TAA expression in CSC/CIC, and the advantages of CSC/CIC-targeting immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirohashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsukahara
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanaseki
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Vitaly
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kochin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan.
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology*
keywords: Cancer stem cell; cancer testis antigen; cytotoxic T lymphocyte; immunotherapy; tumor antigen