Colorectal cancer│The research team led by Professor Keiichi Nakayama, Institute of Body Defense Medicine, Kyushu University, Japan, published a study in the American medical journal “Cancer Research” on the 8th, stating that his team found that cancer stem cells in the quiescent phase were ablated p57+ cells can effectively inhibit the recurrence of intestinal tumors after chemotherapy. It is hoped that by developing drugs that remove these cancer stem cells that cause colorectal cancer recurrence, a treatment that can completely cure cancer can be developed.
Written by: Yuuki@Medical Inspire 医． Thinking │ Image source: Africa Studio@Shutterstock, mi_viri@Shutterstock, Peakstock@Shutterstock │ Source:Research Team of Kyushu University, Japan、Kyushu University Institute of Physical Defense Medicine
Colorectal cancer│Japanese research: Cancer stem cells that lead to the recurrence of colorectal cancer were discovered, and the recurrence rate can be suppressed to less than 1/5 after elimination.
Previous studies have found that when tumors are treated with chemotherapy drugs, the autophagy function of cancer cells can enter a slow division state, save energy, and improve survival ability, just like a hibernation state. Once the drug is stopped, it re-proliferates at full speed, making the cancer more likely to come back after chemotherapy treatment. A research team led by Professor Nakayama Keichi of the Kyushu University Institute of Somatic Defense Medicine in Japan found that ablation of quiescent cancer stem cells p57+ cells can effectively inhibit the recurrence of intestinal tumors after chemotherapy. It is hoped that by developing drugs that remove these cancer stem cells that cause colorectal cancer recurrence, a treatment that can completely cure cancer can be developed. The team has published the research results in the American medical journal “Cancer Research” on the 8th.
Research purpose and method
The research team noted that quiescent cancer stem cells (CSCs) are resistant to conventional anticancer treatments and have been shown to contribute to disease recurrence after treatment in certain cancer types. According to the data from Kyushu University’s Institute of Physical Defense Medicine, even in the early stages, nearly 20% of patients treated with tumor resection will relapse, which has become a major issue when considering treatment.
The study used single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to analyze intestinal malignant tumors and found that there are two types of cell populations with different cell proliferation states in cancer stem cells. Among them, the researchers found that the p57 gene molecule plays an important role in the arrest of the cell cycle, which can make cancer cells grow slowly and dormant. The team believes that cancer stem cell p57+ cells (p57+ CSCs), while making a limited contribution to steady-state tumor growth, are chemoresistant and contribute to cancer recurrence after treatment. The reason may be that traditional anticancer drugs, designed to target rapidly proliferating cells, are less effective against slowly proliferating p57+ cancer stem cells.
The study found that removingp57+Molecule suppresses cancer recurrence rate
The research team tried to remove the specificity of p57+ cells, and at the same time cooperate with anticancer drug treatment. Cancer recurrence was found to be strongly suppressed. The researchers gave adult mice without the molecule the anticancer drug and found that cancer recurrence was suppressed to less than one-fifth of the rate in mice with the molecule. demonstrated that ablation of p57+ cancer stem cells indeed inhibited intestinal tumor regrowth after chemotherapy.
The team believes that it is possible to develop new and effective treatments for cancer by developing drugs that remove p57+ cancer stem cells, and has high expectations for the development of treatments that can completely cure cancer.
