QJM. 2014 Mar 11. [Epub ahead of print]
Airway stem cells and lung cancer.
Author information
- 1From the Lungs for Living Research Centre, UCL Respiratory, Division of Medicine, Rayne Building, University College London, 5 University Street, London WC1E 6JF, UK.
Abstract
Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the UK and despite recent therapeutic advances there is a desperate need for new therapies to improve outcomes from this devastating disease. Through defining the spatial location of the airway epithelial stem or progenitor cell populations and their mechanisms of maintenance and repair of the epithelium it is becoming clear that these populations are situated at areas corresponding to those involved in lung cancer initiation. We explore the evidence for stem cells being the cancer initiator cell and for a 'lung cancer stem cell' within tumours that may be the cause of resistance to current therapies.
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