A unified model of the hierarchical and stochastic theories of gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is a life-threatening disease worldwide. Despite remarkable advances in treatments for GC, it is still fatal to many patients due to cancer progression, recurrence and metastasis. Regarding the development of novel therapeutic techniques, many studies have focused on the biologic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of cancer 2017-04, Vol.116 (8), p.973-989
Main Authors: Song, Yanjing, Wang, Yao, Tong, Chuan, Xi, Hongqing, Zhao, Xudong, Wang, Yi, Chen, Lin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/532/71
631/67/1504/1829
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cancer Research
Cancer therapies
Drug Resistance
Epidemiology
Evolution
Gastric cancer
Humans
Leukemia
Metastasis
Models, Theoretical
Molecular Medicine
Molecular Targeted Therapy
Mortality
Mutation
Neoplastic Stem Cells - pathology
Oncology
Review
Signal Transduction
Stem cells
Stochastic models
Stomach Neoplasms - pathology
Stomach Neoplasms - therapy
Tumors
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Summary:Gastric cancer (GC) is a life-threatening disease worldwide. Despite remarkable advances in treatments for GC, it is still fatal to many patients due to cancer progression, recurrence and metastasis. Regarding the development of novel therapeutic techniques, many studies have focused on the biological mechanisms that initiate tumours and cause treatment resistance. Tumours have traditionally been considered to result from somatic mutations, either via clonal evolution or through a stochastic model. However, emerging evidence has characterised tumours using a hierarchical organisational structure, with cancer stem cells (CSCs) at the apex. Both stochastic and hierarchical models are reasonable systems that have been hypothesised to describe tumour heterogeneity. Although each model alone inadequately explains tumour diversity, the two models can be integrated to provide a more comprehensive explanation. In this review, we discuss existing evidence supporting a unified model of gastric CSCs, including the regulatory mechanisms of this unified model in addition to the current status of stemness-related targeted therapy in GC patients.
ISSN:0007-0920
1532-1827
DOI:10.1038/bjc.2017.54