Background Rectal cancer is one of the common gastrointestinal cancers and a leading cause for cancer deaths in India especially in the younger population. Cancer stem cells as part of intratumoral heterogeneity are attributed to therapy failure due to stemness related resistance mechanisms. Better understanding of resistant stem cell clones of rectal cancer will increase the success rate of cancer treatment. Methods After Institutional ethical committee approval the primary cell cultures from two tumour specimens of rectal cancer patients planned for chemoradiation and at the time of surgery were prepared. From single cell suspension cultures total stem cell population was estimated based upon Hoechst 33342 dye staining technique and its correlation with patientsrsquo overall survival was evaluated.Results During the study period out of 91 newly diagnosed rectal cancer patients 21 rectal cancer tissue samples were collected before chemoradiation and at the time of surgery from 12 patients consisting of ten males and two females in the age range of 29 to 67 years. Single cell suspension culture from tumour tissue samples collected from eight patients prior to their chemoradiation were prepared with maximum duration of viability of 10 days. Range of percentage of Hoechst low stem cells to Hoechst bright tumours cells was from 0.2 to 0.9 in eight SCSC with significant correlation with overall survival.Conclusion Cancer stem cell populations in rectal cancer patients can be attributed to poor outcomes owing to the resistance mechanisms to chemoradiation termed as stemness. Better understanding of stemness and targeting of pathways by novel therapies can improve current poor outcome.
Read full abstract7-days of FREE Audio papers, translation & more with Prime
7-days of FREE Prime access