TITLE:
Therapeutics Progression in Pancreatic Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells
AUTHORS:
Minwei Zhou, Yantian Fang, Jianbin Xiang, Zongyou Chen
KEYWORDS:
Pancreatic Cancer, Cancer Stem Cells, Cancer Therapy
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.6 No.3,
February
25,
2015
ABSTRACT: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal malignant tumors,
which often result from diagnoses of advanced stages and ineffective therapies.
A main reason for this extremely poor prognosis is the cancer’s tendency to
invade adjacent tissues and metastasize to regional lymph at a relatively early
stage. Nowadays, the resistance to conventional chemotherapy is becoming
crucial in poor clinical outcomes of PC. In order to improve the prognosis and
clinical outcomes of PC, there is a pressing need to develop new therapeutic
strategies not only aimed at preventing invasion and metastasis, but also
improving the resistance of chemotherapies. The resistance to conventional
therapeutic agents in cancer may be sustained by a fraction of cancer cells
within the tumor, which is called the cancer stem cells (CSCs). Combined
therapies targeting CSCs and their progenies may represent the most promising
approach for the future treatment of patients with PC.