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Cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer and the association with chemotherapy resistance

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Abstract

The incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) have always been among the highest in the world, although the diagnosis and treatment are becoming more and more advanced. At present, the main reason is that patients have acquired drug resistance after long-term conventional drug treatment. An increasing number of evidences confirm the existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are a group of special cells in cancer, only a small part of cancer cells. These special cell populations are not eliminated by chemotherapeutic drugs and result in tumor recurrence and metastasis after drug treatment. CSCs have the ability of self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation, which is associated with the occurrence and development of cancer. CSCs can be screened and identified by related surface markers. In this paper, the characteristic surface markers of CSCs in CRC and the related mechanism of drug resistance will be discussed in detail. A better understanding of the mechanism of CSCs resistance to chemotherapy may lead to better targeted therapy.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81472275), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2020A151501303, 2014A030313542), Major projects of key platforms for colleges and universities in Guangdong Province (2020KTSCX045, 2019KTSCX046), and Research Fund of Guangdong Medical University (GDMUZ2020001).

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Author notes

  1. Xue Lei and Qinglian He have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Guangdong Medical University, No.1 Xincheng Road, Dongguan, 523808, Guangdong Province, China

    Xue Lei, Qinglian He, Ziqi Li, Qian Zou, Pingrong Xu & Wei Zhu

  2. School of Public Health, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, 523808, Guangdong Province, China

    Haibing Yu & Yuanlin Ding

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  1. Xue Lei
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  2. Qinglian He
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  3. Ziqi Li
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  4. Qian Zou
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  5. Pingrong Xu
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  6. Haibing Yu
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  7. Yuanlin Ding
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  8. Wei Zhu
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Contributions

XL and QLH conducted data analysis and drafted manuscripts. ZQL, QZ, RPX, and HBY were involved in research design and data collection. Finally, YLD and WZ revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wei Zhu.

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Lei, X., He, Q., Li, Z. et al. Cancer stem cells in colorectal cancer and the association with chemotherapy resistance. Med Oncol 38, 43 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-021-01488-9

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