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Published on: March 1, 2020
Cancer stem cells of the digestive system
Hugh S Colvin1, Naohiro Nishida2, Jun Koseki3
1Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Department of Frontier Science for Cancer and Chemotherapy, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka.
Abstract:
Stem cells of the digestive system are ideal in many ways for research, given they are abundant, highly proliferative and have a uniform structural arrangement. This in turn has enormously aided the research of cancer stem cells of the digestive system, which is now shaping our understanding of cancer stem cells. In this review, the recent advances in the understanding of cancer stem cells of the digestive system have been summarized, including aspects such as their identification, origin, cell-cycle dormancy, relationship with epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cellular metabolism and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Newly acquired knowledge concerning cancer stem cells have led to the development of novel cancer therapeutics with provisional yet encouraging results.
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