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Zhang et al. Hepatoma Res 2019;5:27 Hepatoma Research
DOI: 10.20517/2394-5079.2019.13

Review Open Access

Advances in surface markers of liver cancer stem
cell

Jin-Liang Zhang , Lan-Qi Gong , Qian Yan , Ning-Ning Zhou , Victor Ho-Fun Lee , Xin-Yuan Guan
1,2
4
2,3
1
2,3
2,3
1 Department of Clinical Oncology Center, The University of Hongkong-Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen 518053, China.
2 Department of Clinical Oncology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
3 State Key Laboratory for Liver Research, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
4 Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China;
Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, China.
Correspondence to: Prof. Xin-Yuan Guan, Department of Clinical Oncology, The University of Hong Kong, Room L10-56,
Laboratory Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong, China. Phone: 852-3917-9782. E-mail: xyguan@hku.hk
How to cite this article: Zhang JL, Gong LQ, Yan Q, Zhou NN, Lee VHF, Guan XY. Advances in surface markers of liver cancer
stem cell. Hepatoma Res 2019;5:27. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-5079.2019.13

Received: 21 Feb 2019 First Decision: 10 Apr 2019 Revised: 16 May 2019 Accepted: 24 May 2019 Published: 23 Jul 2019
Science Editor: Jin-Lin Hou Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Received: First Decision: Revised: Accepted: Published:
Abstract
Science Editor: Copy Editor: Production Editor:
Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs), a small subpopulation that constitutes liver cancer heterogeneity, play a vital role in
cancer initiation, invasion, recurrence, metastasis, and resistance to chemo-radiotherapy. It is believed that therapies
targeting LCSCs can improve the efficacy of conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy by completely eliminating
tumors while preventing recurrence. Therefore, during last decades, numerous surface markers for LCSCs have
been identified and characterized in many subtypes of liver cancer, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
These well-recognized surface markers significantly promote the therapeutic efficacy that identifies, targets and
destroys LCSCs. Meanwhile, there have been intensive studies that aim to investigate the molecular mechanism
of how stemness contributes to liver cancer relapse, recurrence and resistance. However, liver cancer stemness
seems to be regulated by a hierarchical organization and crosstalk of a wide variety of signaling pathways. Using
individual or few LCSC surface markers may not be able to completely reveal the intrinsic stemness hierarchy.
From an integrated perspective, understanding of recent advances in LCSC surface markers remains important
and urgent. In this review, we concentrate on demonstrating the indispensable roles of LCSC surface markers in
identification and characterization of multiple cancer stages including initiation, invasion, metastasis, resistance
and highlighting the cutting-edge therapeutic strategies against cancer stem cells in HCC.

Keywords: Liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, cancer stem cell, surface marker

© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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