Progress on Gastric Cancer Stem Cell Research

Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Although significant progresses have been made in gastric cancer research field recently,the mechanism underlying gastric cancer initiation still remains largely unknown due to the lack of proper animal models. Recent studies reveal that tumor is organized as a hierarchy that originates from a small subset of cancer cells that possess extensive proliferative and self-renewal potential and can differentiate into the heterogeneous non- tumorigenic cancer cells. Similar in many respects to normal tissue stem cells,these cells are named cancer stem cells(CSCs). CSCs are thought to play important roles in the progression,recurrence and metastasis of cancer. The existence of gastric cancer stem cells has been proved,but the origin of gastric cancer stem cells is still elusive. Investigation on CSCs will help us develop therapies targeted to CSCs in stead of the bulk non-tumorigenic cancer cells.