colorectal cancer stem cells and cell death结直肠癌干细胞和细胞死亡.pdfVIP

Cancers 2011, 3, 1929-1946; doi:10.3390/cancers3021929 OPEN ACCESS cancers ISSN 2072-6694 /journal/cancers Review Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells and Cell Death Veronica Catalano 1,†, Miriam Gaggianesi 1,2,†, Valentina Spina 1,†, Flora Iovino 1, Francesco Dieli 3, Giorgio Stassi 1,2,* and Matilde Todaro 1 1 Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Liborio Giuffrè 5, 90127 Palermo (PA), Italy; E-Mails: catalano1981@libero.it (V.C.); v.spina81@libero.it (V.S.); flora.iovino@ (F.I.); dieli@unipa.it (F.D.); matilde.todaro@ (M.T.) 2 Department of Cellular and Molecular Oncology, IRCCS Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Via Salvatore Maugeri, 27100 Pavia (PV), Italy 3 Departement of Biopathology and Medicine Biotechnologies, University of Palermo, Via Liborio Giuffrè 5, 90127 Palermo (PA), Italy; E-Mail: dieli@unipa.it † These authors contribute equally to this work. * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: giorgio.stassi@unipa.it or giorgio.stassi@fsm.it. Received: 30 December 2010; in revised form: 21 March 2011 / Accepted: 6 April 2011 / Published: 11 April 2011 Abstract: Nowadays it is reported that, similarly to other solid tumors, colorectal cancer is sustained by a rare subset of cancer stem–like cells (CSCs), which survive conventional anticancer treatments, thanks to efficient mechanisms allowing escape from apoptosis, triggering tumor recurrence. To improve patient outcomes, conventional anticancer therapies have to be replaced with sp