Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Biol Chem. Aug 26, 2015; 6(3): 57-64
Published online Aug 26, 2015. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v6.i3.57
Published online Aug 26, 2015. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v6.i3.57
DNA damage responses in cancer stem cells: Implications for cancer therapeutic strategies
Qi-En Wang, Division of Radiobiology, Department of Radiology, the Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH 43210, United States
Author contributions: Wang QE solely contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by NCI R01 (CA151248).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares 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: Qi-En Wang, PhD, Division of Radiobiology, Department of Radiology, the Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, Room 1014, 460 W. 12th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210, United States. qi-en.wang@osumc.edu
Telephone: +1-614-2929021
Received: March 7, 2015
Peer-review started: March 7, 2015
First decision: April 10, 2015
Revised: May 20, 2015
Accepted: May 27, 2015
Article in press: May 28, 2015
Published online: August 26, 2015
Peer-review started: March 7, 2015
First decision: April 10, 2015
Revised: May 20, 2015
Accepted: May 27, 2015
Article in press: May 28, 2015
Published online: August 26, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are thought to be at the root of cancer recurrence and therapeutic resistance. Eradication of CSCs could be a key to successful cancer therapeutics. Studies have shown that CSCs possess highly efficient ability to process DNA damage. This elevated DNA damage response (DDR) is believed to be responsible for the resistance to DNA damaging agents. Thus, targeting enhanced DDR in CSCs may be a promising strategy to facilitate elimination of these highly tumorigenic cells by conventional therapies.