膵癌

Pancreatic cancer stem cells

膵癌は既存の治療法に強い抵抗性を示し，極めて予後が悪い．近年，膵癌中に幹細胞の性質をもつ，いわゆる癌幹細胞が少数存在し，治療抵抗性に寄与しているというモデルが提唱されている．膵癌の治療抵抗性にかかわる膵癌幹細胞の同定は，有効な膵癌の治療法を開発するうえで重要と考えられる．

Pancreatic cancer shows high resistance to existing therapies, and extremely poor prognosis.　Recently, the hierarchical model, in which cancer stem cells (CSC) are top, has been proposed.　Accumulating evidence suggests the contribution of CSC to cancer metastasis or recurrence.　The identification of CSC and their functional analysis potentially contribute to the development of novel therapies to improve the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer.