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Hindi Review Article
Immunotherapy Targeting Cancer Stem Cells of Human Colorectal Cancer
Tadashi Ogawa1,2, Yoshihiko Hirohashi1*, Toshihiko Torigoe1, Noriyuki Sato1 and Koichi Hirata2
1Department of Pathology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8556, Japan
2Department of Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, South-1 West-17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8556, Japan
- *Corresponding Author:
- Yoshihiko Hirohashi
Department of Pathology
Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine
South-1 West-17, Chuo-ku
Sapporo 060-8556, Japan
E-mail: hirohash@sapmed.ac.jp
Received date: April 20, 2013; Accepted date: June 04, 2013; Published date: June 06, 2013
Citation: Ogawa T, Hirohashi Y, Torigoe T, Sato N, Hirata K (2013) Immunotherapy Targeting Cancer Stem Cells of Human Colorectal Cancer. J Gastroint Dig Syst S12:014. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.S12-014
Copyright: © 2013 Ogawa T, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Despite improvements in surgical therapy and chemotherapy, the overall survival rate of patients with recurrence or metastatic cancer has not improved significantly in the past several decades. Treatment resistance makes the disease incontrollable, and recent basic research has revealed that cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) or cancer-initiating cells (CICs) are involved in treatment resistance. Therefore, eradicating CSCs/CICs is a key approach to improve colorectal cancer treatment. Cancer immunotherapy is expected to become the fourth cancer treatment option, and several studies have shown that CSCs/CICs can be targeted by immunotherapy. In this review article, we summarize the potency of immunotherapy as CSC/CIC-targeting therapy and the future perspectives of CSC/CIC-targeting immunotherapy.
