Cancer Stem Cells in Solid Tumors
The “cancer stem cell” hypothesis postulates that cancer arises from a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs). While the idea of cancer stem cells has been around for more than a hundred years, evidence from the fields of hema
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Series Editor Kursad Turksen, Ph.D. [email protected]
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Alison L. Allan Editor
Cancer Stem Cells in Solid Tumors
Editor Alison L. Allan Depts. of Oncology and Anat. & Cell Biology Schulich School of Med. and Dent. University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-61779-245-8 e-ISBN 978-1-61779-246-5 DOI 10.1007/978-1-61779-246-5 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932988 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Humana Press, c/o Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Humana Press is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Recently, there has been increasing support for the “cancer stem cell” hypothesis, which postulates that cancer arises from a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs). There are currently two conflicting views that attempt to explain tumor formation. The classical stochastic model suggests that every cell within a tumor is a potential tumor-initiator, but that entry into the cell cycle is governed by a low probability of stochastic mutations. According to this model, it would be impossible to tell which cell initiated the tumor since each cell has an equal ability to be malignant. By contrast, the hierarchy theory (upon which the CSC hypothesis is based) proposes that only a subset of cells within a tumor is capable of initiating tumor growth, but that these cells all do so at a high frequency. According to this theory, it should be possible to identify and target the cells responsible for tumor initiation and progression because not all cells have the same phenotypic and functional characteristics. While the idea of CSCs has been around for more than 100 years, evidence from the hematology field has now demonstrated the critical role of stem cells in hematological malignancies and suggested that these same mechanisms could also be central to the initiation, progression, and treatment of solid cancers. Indeed, several pivotal studies have recently provided compelling evidence that these cells do exist in solid tumors of many types including breast, brain, colorectal, pancreas, prostate, melanoma, lung, ovarian, liver, and head and neck cancer. Furthermore, clinical and e
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