The most reliable surface marker for the identification of colorectal cancer stem‐like cells: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract Several surface markers have been proposed for the identification and characterization of colorectal cancer stem‐like cells (CR‐CSLCs). However, their reliability in CR‐CSLCs identification remains controversial. This study evaluated the correlation between all candidate surface marker's expression and CSLCs properties (tumorigenicity) through monitoring in vivo tumor incidence and final tumor volume. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were systematically searched until November 2017. A total of 27 studies were found that met the inclusion criteria for cluster of differentiation 133 (CD133) and CD44 markers. Results indicated that either CD133 or CD44 positive cells caused about twofold increase in tumor volume compared with the negative cells ( p < 0.05). In two groups of cells derived from primary tumors and cell lines, CD133 + cells had 25 and 1.45 times higher tumor incidence potential than CD133 − cells, respectively ( p < 0.05). Also, cohort evaluation showed that CD133 overexpression at protein level is a marker of poor overall survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. While CD44 + cells displayed twofold tumorigenicity compared with the negative cells ( p < 0.05), combination of CD44 and CD133 showed about sevenfold tumorigenicity potential ( p < 0.05). In conclusion, the present meta‐analysis suggests that CD133 is a robust biomarker to identify primary tumor CSLCs and can be proposed as a prognostic marker of CRC patient whereas it should be used with caution in cell lines. It seems to be more reliable to use CD133 in combination with CD44 as target biomarkers for the isolation of CR‐CSLCs in both cell line and primary tumor cells populations.