Research Progress Of Cancer Stem Cells In Urologic Cancers

BACKGROUND: Cancer stem cells are a small group of cancer cellswithin each cancer that have the ability of self-renewal, unlimitedproliferation and multiple differentiation, and they are responsible for theinitiation, progression, recurrence and metastasis of a tumor. In recent years,with the deepening research of the cancer stem cells, researchers havesuccessfully isolated and identified cancer stem cells in a growing numberof tumors. Although, the research about the cancer stem cells from urologiccancers is late, it also makes some achievements.OBJECTIVE: To review the research progress of urologic cancer stemcells in this years.METHODS: Articles related to the research progress of urologiccancer stem cells in PubMed database and CNKI database from January1997to June2011were retrieved by the computer with the key words of“cancer stem cell, urologic cancer, prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma,bladder cancer”. A total of349articles were obtained from the database.After reading the title, abstract and article, the repetitive articles andnon-compliant articles were excluded, and finally39articles were included for further analysis.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The cancer stem cell theory hasopened up a new way for people to recognize tumor. Researchers have doneconsiderable researches on the origins, biological characteristics, surfacemarkers, self-renewal regulatory mechanisms and micro-environment ofcancer stem cells and have achieved a certain understanding. In the urologictumors, prostate cancer stem cell and bladder cancer stem cell have beenidentified and isolated successfully, and the finding of specific surfacemarkers of renal cancer stem cell has also made some progress. Futureresearch will focus on the discovery of more cancer stem cell-specificsurface markers and in search of better in vitro isolation and identificationfor cancer stem cell. Cancer stem cell-targeted therapy will become a newway to cure urologic tumors.