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80th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

20.05. - 24.05.2009, Rostock

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The role of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma associated fibroblasts in tumor progression

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  • corresponding author Jan Plzak - ENT Department, 1st Fac Med, Charles University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Karel Smetana - Institute of Anatomy, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Lukas Lacina - Department of Dermatovenerology, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Barbora Dvorankova - Institute of Anatomy, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Michal Kolar - Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, vvi., Prague, Czech Republic
  • Hynek Strnad - Institute of Molecular Genetics,Czech Academy of Sciences, vvi., Prague, Czech Republic
  • Martin Chovanec - ENT Department, 1st Fac Med, Charles University, Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Jan Betka - ENT Department, 1st Fac Med, Charles University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 80. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Rostock, 20.-24.05.2009. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc09hnod442

doi: 10.3205/09hnod442, urn:nbn:de:0183-09hnod4429

Published: April 17, 2009

© 2009 Plzak et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Remarkable achievements in stem cell research delineated new horizons of future improvement of cancer therapy. Paradigm of existence of cancer stem cell has been established in solid tumors and it is based on parallel between tissue stem cells and population of cancer cells responsible for tumor spreading. Normal tissue stem cells require highly specialized microenvironment so called niche that is necessary for the maintenance of their stemness. Disorders of such microenvironment drive the stem cell population to entrance to the process of final differentiation. The positive role of tumor stroma in course of vascularisation of tumor bed has already been well described. The sum of evidence that cancer associated stromal fibroblasts exert an important role in cancer progression is enlarged and their participation in cancer stem cell niche formation seems to be highly probable.

When coculture normal keratinocytes with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma associated fibroblasts, the phenotype of keratinocytes is heavily altered to resemble cancer cells. Modern analytic technologies such as DNA microarrays analysis indicated differences in production of regulatory factors/cytokines that significant in biological activity of cancer associate fibroblasts. Nature of these fibroblasts is not well understood yet, but principally they can originate in local mesenchyme under the control of cancer cells. However, they can be also arise from tumor cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition or in cells formed by fusion of cancer cells with local fibroblasts. Summarizing these data, similarly to embryonic development, mesenchymal-epithelial interaction can play an important role in tumor progression and its management may be a promising future anticancer therapeutic tool.

Supported by: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, projects No. NPV 2B06106 and 0021620806.