Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Sep 3;7(3):279-82.
doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2010.08.009.

Tumor-initiating cells are rare in many human tumors

Kota Ishizawa  1 , Zeshaan A Rasheed, Robert Karisch, Qiuju Wang, Jeanne Kowalski, Erica Susky, Keira Pereira, Christina Karamboulas, Nadeem Moghal, N V Rajeshkumar, Manuel Hidalgo, Ming Tsao, Laurie Ailles, Thomas K Waddell, Anirban Maitra, Benjamin G Neel, William Matsui
Affiliations

Tumor-initiating cells are rare in many human tumors

Kota Ishizawa et al. Cell Stem Cell. .

Abstract

Tumor-initiating cells (TICs) are defined by their ability to form tumors after xenotransplantation in immunodeficient mice and appear to be relatively rare in most human cancers. Recent data in melanoma indicate that the frequency of TICs increases dramatically via more permissive xenotransplantation conditions, raising the possibility that the true frequency of TICs has been greatly underestimated in most human tumors. We compared the growth of human pancreatic, non-small cell lung, and head and neck carcinomas in NOD/SCID and NSG mice. Although TIC frequency was detected up to 10-fold higher in NSG mice, it remained low (<1 in 2500 cells) in all cases. Moreover, aldehyde dehydrogenase-positive (ALDH(+)) and CD44(+)CD24(+) cells, phenotypically distinct cells enriched in TICs, were equally tumorigenic in NOD/SCID and NSG mice. Our findings demonstrate that TICs are rare in these cancers and that the identification of TICs and their frequency in other human malignancies should be validated via primary tumors and highly permissive xenotransplantation conditions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Al-Hajj M, Wicha MS, Benito-Hernandez A, Morrison SJ, Clarke MF. Prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2003;100:3983–3988. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bellone G, Carbone A, Smirne C, Scirelli T, Buffolino A, Novarino A, Stacchini A, Bertetto O, Palestro G, Sorio C, et al. Cooperative induction of a tolerogenic dendritic cell phenotype by cytokines secreted by pancreatic carcinoma cells. J Immunol. 2006;177:3448–3460. - PubMed
    1. Boiko AD, Razorenova OV, van de Rijn M, Swetter SM, Johnson DL, Ly DP, Butler PD, Yang GP, Joshua B, Kaplan MJ, et al. Human melanoma-initiating cells express neural crest nerve growth factor receptor CD271. Nature. 2010;466:133–137. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bruce WR, Van Der Gaag H. A Quantitative Assay for the Number of Murine Lymphoma Cells Capable of Proliferation in Vivo. Nature. 1963;199:79–80. - PubMed
    1. Clarke MF, Dick JE, Dirks PB, Eaves CJ, Jamieson CH, Jones DL, Visvader J, Weissman IL, Wahl GM. Cancer stem cells--perspectives on current status and future directions: AACR Workshop on cancer stem cells. Cancer Res. 2006;66:9339–9344. - PubMed

Publication types