Role of Cancer Stem Cells in Cancer Biology and Therapy PDF

Preface

To edit a book on the "Role of Cancer Stem Cells in Cancer Biology and Therapy" is not an easy task, but we believe that, if the work is being done with outstanding scientists, who touched upon so many issues, concepts, ideas, proposals-it becomes not a fi rst-rate problem.

PubMed-NCBI lists in 2012 under the heading of "cancer stem cells" more than 30,000 publications-more than a three-fold increase in a 10-years publication period. There is increasing evidence supporting the concept that cancers are organized in a cellular hierarchy with cancer stem cells (CSCs) at the apex. The failure to cure cancer might be due to a misidentifi cation of the target. Current therapy regimens succeed at eliminating bulky disease, but often miss a tumor reservoir that is the source of disease recurrence and metastasis. The CSC hypothesis postulates that tumor growth is driven by a rare subpopulation of tumor cells that show similar biological properties as stem cells. As a result, tumors contain a cellular compartment that retains key stem cell properties including self-renewal, which drives tumorigenesis and differentiation that contributes to cellular heterogeneity. Advances in stem cell biology and technology have led to the identifi cation of stem cells in normal and malignant tissues. Cancer researchers can sequence the genome of single tumor cells, scan the genome for the activity of "good" and "bad" genes and profi le the protein expression. But the main question remains still relevant to patients: Why are organ specifi c tumors formed?

Again, the CSC hypothesis supports the idea that a small subset of cells drives tumor growth and that curing cancer may require those cells to be eliminated. The evolving concept of CSCs will lead to a paradigm shift in the way that chemo- and radiotherapy effi cacy is evaluated and how therapeutics are developed. The shrinking of a tumor is not any more the fi rst therapeutic target, but to assess whether a new therapy kills the right sort of tumor cells. The hunt to fi nd ways to kill these cells or push them into a silent niche is now open.

To be successful, we need all the brains and the intelligence of researchers; we need new algorithms to use the trillions of data generated and already stored in the clouds to understand the complexity of a "brain" within a tumor, e.g., why non-stem cells within the tumor are forced to dedifferentiate into stem cells.

We have entered the post-genomic era and the master builders that underlie tumor growth are likely CSCs and regulatory phenomena of such cells with other types of cancer cells and their microenvironment.

It is too soon to know whether this fascinating concept of CSC has profound implications for personalized patient care, but we can be again optimistic after a period of relative stagnation in cancer therapy.

This book might be regarded as a further provocative contribution to discuss the role of CSCs in cancer biology and therapy with leading experts and without any boundaries.