AsianScientist (May 8, 2014) – Researchers have identified a marker that could help distinguish gastric cancer stem cells from normal, healthy cells.
Cancer cells generally express high levels of CD44, a protein that exists on the surfaces of cells. CD44 is known to distinguish cancer stem cells – which are cancer cells that do not possess any specialized function – from normal cells. Only recently postulated to exist, cancer stem cells are believed to be responsible for resistance to current cancer therapy and tumor relapse in cancer patients.
CD44 exists in many forms, and it is not known which form is found on cancer stem cells. In a study published in the journal Cancer Research, a team led by by Dr. Chan Shing Leng from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore showed that the cell surface protein CD44v8-10, a form of CD44, marks gastric cancer stem cells but not normal cells.
The research team analyzed 53 patient tissue samples in conjunction with patient-derived tumor xenograft models, all of which had been derived from intestinal-type gastric cancer. They established that CD44v8-10 promotes cancer cell growth and is also more abundant in gastric tumor sites compared to normal gastric tissue.
Due to its distinguishing property in gastric cancer stem cells, CD44v8-10 may be a suitable biomarker, or target, for developing both clinical diagnoses and treatments for the disease, the researchers say.
“(This discovery) may explain why gastric cancer patients develop cancer relapse after chemotherapy as conventional chemotherapy mainly targets the common cancer cells. Hence, if we can find drugs that can target these gastric cancer stem cells, we may improve the patients’ outcome in the future,” said co-author Jimmy So, who is Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
The article can be found at: Lau et al. (2014) CD44v8-10 is a cancer-specific marker for gastric cancer stem cells.
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Source: National University of Singapore; Photo: euthman/Flickr/CC.
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