Head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer in the world. Effective therapeutic modalities such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and combinations of each are used in the management of the disease. In most cases, treatment fails to obtain total cancer cure. In recent years, it appears that one of the key determinants of treatment failure may be the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) that escape currently available therapies. CSCs form a small portion of the total tumor burden but may play a disproportionately important role in determining outcomes. CSCs have stem features such as self-renewal, high migration capacity, drug resistance, high proliferation abilities. A large body of evidence points to the fact that CSCs are particularly resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In HNSCC, CSCs have been increasingly shown to have an integral role in tumor initiation, disease progression, metastasis and treatment resistance. In the light of such observations, the present review summarizes biological characteristics of CSCs in HNSCC, outlines targeted strategies for the successful eradication of CSCs in HNSCC including targeting the self-renewal controlling pathways, blocking epithelial mesenchymal transition, niche targeting, immunotherapy approaches and highlights the need to better understand CSCs biology for new treatments modalities.

中文翻译：

---

靶向头颈部肿瘤干细胞：从生物学角度到治疗角度。

头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）是世界第六大最常见的癌症。有效的治疗方式，如手术，放疗，化学疗法以及每种方法的组合，均用于疾病的治疗。在大多数情况下，治疗无法完全治愈癌症。近年来，看来治疗失败的关键因素之一可能是逃避了当前可用疗法的癌症干细胞（CSC）的存在。CSC占肿瘤总负担的一小部分，但在决定结局方面可能起着不成比例的重要作用。CSC具有茎干特征，例如自我更新，高迁移能力，耐药性，高增殖能力。大量证据表明，CSC对放射疗法和化学疗法特别有抵抗力。在HNSCC中，越来越多的CSC在肿瘤的发生，疾病进展，转移和治疗耐药性中起着不可或缺的作用。根据这些观察，本综述总结了HNSCC中CSCs的生物学特征，概述了成功根除HNSCC中CSCs的靶向策略，包括靶向自我更新控制途径，阻断上皮间质转化，利基靶向，免疫疗法和重点研究。有必要更好地了解CSCs生物学以寻求新的治疗方法。