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Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal

Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) represent a subpopulation of tumor cells with elevated tumor-initiating potential. Upon differentiation, they replenish the bulk of the tumor cell population. Enhanced tumor-forming capacity, resistance to antitumor drugs, and metastasis-forming potential are the hallmar...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Marcucci, Fabrizio, Rumio, Cristiano, Lefoulon, François
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242955
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2016.00115
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author Marcucci, Fabrizio
Rumio, Cristiano
Lefoulon, François
author_facet Marcucci, Fabrizio
Rumio, Cristiano
Lefoulon, François
author_sort Marcucci, Fabrizio
collection PubMed
description Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) represent a subpopulation of tumor cells with elevated tumor-initiating potential. Upon differentiation, they replenish the bulk of the tumor cell population. Enhanced tumor-forming capacity, resistance to antitumor drugs, and metastasis-forming potential are the hallmark traits of CSCs. Given these properties, it is not surprising that CSCs have become a therapeutic target of prime interest in drug discovery. In fact, over the last few years, an enormous number of articles describing compounds endowed with anti-CSC activities have been published. In the meanwhile, several of these compounds and also approaches that are not based on the use of pharmacologically active compounds (e.g., vaccination, radiotherapy) have progressed into clinical studies. This article gives an overview of these compounds, proposes a tentative classification, and describes their biological properties and their developmental stage. Eventually, we discuss the optimal clinical setting for these compounds, the need for biomarkers allowing patient selection, the redundancy of CSC signaling pathways and the utility of employing combinations of anti-CSC compounds and the therapeutic limitations posed by the plasticity of CSCs.
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spelling pubmed-48617392016-05-30 Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal Marcucci, Fabrizio Rumio, Cristiano Lefoulon, François Front Oncol Oncology Cancer stem-like cells (CSC) represent a subpopulation of tumor cells with elevated tumor-initiating potential. Upon differentiation, they replenish the bulk of the tumor cell population. Enhanced tumor-forming capacity, resistance to antitumor drugs, and metastasis-forming potential are the hallmark traits of CSCs. Given these properties, it is not surprising that CSCs have become a therapeutic target of prime interest in drug discovery. In fact, over the last few years, an enormous number of articles describing compounds endowed with anti-CSC activities have been published. In the meanwhile, several of these compounds and also approaches that are not based on the use of pharmacologically active compounds (e.g., vaccination, radiotherapy) have progressed into clinical studies. This article gives an overview of these compounds, proposes a tentative classification, and describes their biological properties and their developmental stage. Eventually, we discuss the optimal clinical setting for these compounds, the need for biomarkers allowing patient selection, the redundancy of CSC signaling pathways and the utility of employing combinations of anti-CSC compounds and the therapeutic limitations posed by the plasticity of CSCs. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4861739/ /pubmed/27242955 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2016.00115 Text en Copyright © 2016 Marcucci, Rumio and Lefoulon. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Oncology
Marcucci, Fabrizio
Rumio, Cristiano
Lefoulon, François
Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title_full Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title_fullStr Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title_full_unstemmed Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title_short Anti-Cancer Stem-like Cell Compounds in Clinical Development – An Overview and Critical Appraisal
title_sort anti-cancer stem-like cell compounds in clinical development – an overview and critical appraisal
topic Oncology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4861739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242955
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2016.00115
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