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Review
. 2019 Dec 19;2(4):1127-1135.
doi: 10.20517/cdr.2019.76. eCollection 2019.

Relationship between ovarian cancer stem cells, epithelial mesenchymal transition and tumour recurrence

Monica Angelica Amaya Padilla  1 , Mudra Binju  1 , Graeme Wan  1 , Yohan Suryo Rahmanto  2   3 , Pritinder Kaur  1 , Yu Yu  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Relationship between ovarian cancer stem cells, epithelial mesenchymal transition and tumour recurrence

Monica Angelica Amaya Padilla et al. Cancer Drug Resist. .

Abstract

Investigating the biological processes that occur to enable recurrence and the development of chemoresistance in ovarian cancer is critical to the research and development of improved treatment options for patients. The lethality of ovarian cancer is largely attributed to the recurrence of disease with acquired chemoresistance. Cancer stem cells are likely to be critical in ovarian cancer progression, contributing to tumour malignancy, metastasis and recurrence by persisting in the body despite treatment with anti-cancer drugs. Moreover, cancer stem cells are capable of mediating epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition traits and secrete extracellular vesicles to acquire therapy resistance and disease dissemination. These attributes merit in depth research to provide insight into the biological role of ovarian cancer stem cells in disease progression and chemotherapy response, leading to the development of improved biomarkers and innovative therapeutic approaches.

Keywords: Ovarian cancer; chemoresistance; epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; extracellular vesicles; platinum resistance; recurrence; stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process in cells. Diagrammatic summary depicting the effects of EMT in cells. The progression of EMT shows the upregulation of mesenchymal markers such as TWIST1, SNAI1, TGF-β, aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), N-cadherin, vimentin and other cancer stem cell (CSC) markers. Profiles with increased expression of these markers have been shown to shift towards a mesenchymal phenotype depicted as irregular shaped cells with a lack of tight junctions. mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition is the reversion of this process. Cells that have shifted toward a mesenchymal state through the upregulation of these markers often acquire stem-like features and chemoresistance
Figure 2
Figure 2
Transfer of extracellular vesicles (EVs) to recipient cells. A proposed model of the process that stem cells use to transfer EVs containing biological materials such as mRNAs, miRNAs and proteins, which can ultimately confer chemoresistant and cancer stem cell properties to recipient cells
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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