Immune response against tumor antigens expressed on human cancer stem-like cells/tumor-initiating cells
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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Isolation and Characterization of Tumor-initiating Cells from Sarcoma Patient-derived Xenografts
Published on: June 13, 2019
Yoshihiko Hirohashi1, Toshihiko Torigoe, Satoko Inoda
1Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Abstract:
Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs)/tumor-initiating cells (TICs) are a small population of cancer cells that have the properties of tumor-initiating ability, self-renewal and differentiation. These properties suggest that CSCs/TICs are essential for tumor maintenance, recurrence and distant metastasis. Thus, elimination of CSCs/TICs is essential to cure malignant diseases. However, there are several studies reporting that CSCs/TICs are more resistant to standard cancer therapies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, than non-CSC/TIC populations. How then, can we eliminate CSCs/TICs? Immunotherapy might be the possible answer. In recent analysis, innate immunity (natural killer cells and gammadeltaT cells) and also adaptive immunity (cytotoxic T lymphocyte-based cellular immunity and antibody-based humoral immunity) can recognize CSCs/TICs in vitro efficiently. Furthermore, CSC/TIC-specific monoclonal antibody therapies are also efficient in vivo. In this article, we describe the potency, possibilities and problems of CSC/TIC-targeting immunotherapy.
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