Publication at Second Faculty of Medicine |
2013
Abstract
Relapses after therapy-induced remissions remain a major challenge in cancer. Molecular detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) is valuable in relapse prediction but its cellular basis remains largely unknown.
Delineating therapy-resistant cells might inform new therapeutic strategies. 'Cancer stem cells', defined by xenografting, have been suggested to preferentially evade therapy, but evidence for persistence of phenotypically and functionally distinct cells in patients undergoing treatment is largely lacking.