Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 112-123
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.112
Stem cells in gastric cancer
Yue Zhao, Fei Feng, Yong-Ning Zhou
Yue Zhao, Yong-Ning Zhou, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Key Laboratory for Gastrointestinal Disease of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Fei Feng, Division of Ultrasonography, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhao Y and Zhou YN designed the study; Zhao Y, Feng F and Zhou YN wrote the manuscript.
Supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities lzujbky-2013-221, China’s National Science and Technology Program for Public Wellbeing Grant No. 2012GS620101 and Major Science and Technology Projects of Gansu Province Grant No. 1102FKDA006
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: Yong-Ning Zhou, MD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Key Laboratory for Gastrointestinal Disease of Gansu Province, 1 Donggaung West Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China. yongningzhou@163.com
Telephone: +86-931-8356238 Fax: +86-931-8619797
Received: August 12, 2014
Peer-review started: August 12, 2014
First decision: August 27, 2014
Revised: September 19, 2014
Accepted: October 20, 2014
Article in press: October 21, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play important roles in cancer initiation, dissemination and recurrence. The recent identification of normal gastric stem cells and gastric CSCs has greatly improved our understanding of the molecular and cellular etiology of gastric cancer and will help with the design of effective treatments. In this article, we review the literature on the recent progress in the identification and characterization of normal gastric stem cells and gastric CSCs and discuss the implications for the treatment of gastric cancer.