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World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2015; 21(42): 12190-12196
Published online Nov 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i42.12190
Research progress and prospects of markers for liver cancer stem cells
Cheng-Pei Zhu, An-Qiang Wang, Hao-Hai Zhang, Xue-Shuai Wan, Xiao-Bo Yang, Shu-Guang Chen, Hai-Tao Zhao
Cheng-Pei Zhu, An-Qiang Wang, Hao-Hai Zhang, Xue-Shuai Wan, Xiao-Bo Yang, Hai-Tao Zhao, Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Shu-Guang Chen, Department of Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Author contributions: Zhu CP and Wang AQ contributed equally to this work; Zhang HH, Wan XS and Yang XB analyzed the data; Zhu CP and Wang AQ wrote the paper; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by International Science and Technology Cooperation Projects, No. 2015DFA30650 and No. 2010DFB33720; Capital Special Research Project for Health Development, No. 2014-2-4012; Capital Research Project for Characteristics Clinical Application, No. Z151100004015170; and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, No. NCET-11-0288.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that the authors have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hai-Tao Zhao, MD, Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Beijing 100730, China. zhaoht@pumch.cn
Telephone: +86-10-69156042 Fax: +86-10-69156042
Received: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 6, 2015
First decision: June 25, 2015
Revised: July 10, 2015
Accepted: August 31, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: November 14, 2015
Abstract

Liver cancer is a common malignancy and surgery is the main treatment strategy. However, the prognosis is still poor because of high frequencies of postoperative recurrence and metastasis. In recent years, cancer stem cell (CSC) theory has evolved with the concept of stem cells, and has been applied to oncological research. According to cancer stem cell theory, liver cancer can be radically cured only by eradication of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs). This notion has lead to the isolation and identification of LCSCs, which has become a highly researched area. Analysis of LCSC markers is considered to be the primary method for identification of LCSCs. Here, we provide an overview of the current research progress and prospects of surface markers for LCSCs.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, Liver cancer stem cells, Surface markers, CD90, Epithelial cell adhesion molecule

Core tip: Liver cancer is a common malignancy and the eradication of liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) is proposed as the key to improving the curative effect of treatments. Many surface markers have been reported for LCSCs, but there is still no unified standard. This paper addresses the research progress of markers for LCSCs and discusses the relationship with clinical syndrome in hepatocellular carcinoma.