The Progress of Tumor Therapy Targeting Liver Cancer Stem Cells

Abstract: Liver cancer is one of the five most common cancers and has become one of important types of cancer causing death. Conventional treatment for early liver cancer has made a certain progress， but cancer recurrence， metastasis and drug-resistance still occur， which may be explained by the theory of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Primary liver cancer mainly includes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC)， which are considered that they may derive partially from liver cancer CSCs. Wnt/β-catenin， TGF-β， Notch and Hedgehog signaling pathway， and EpCAM， Lin28， and miR-181 molecule are also related with liver cancer CSCs. The above can be invoked as molecular targets， and directly modulate CSCs in vivo and in vitro， and assist in designing novel strategies to prevent or treat human cancers. However， CSCs and liver cancer are involved in a complex carcinogenesis and regulatory mechanism with a mutual interference and redundant signaling pathway.Therefore， therapeutic effect is limited to a single molecule or pathway. In this paper， we review the progress of liver cancer CSCs， carcinogenesis， and the related signaling pathways and key molecules， as well as new strategies of treatment targeting liver cancer CSCs.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2017.01.0013