How can we kill colon cancer stem cells?

[Guest guest]

Maybe with curcumin?

see the below abstract

Elimination of Colon Cancer Stem-Like Cells by the Combination of Curcumin and

FOLFOX.

Yu Y, Kanwar SS, Patel BB, Nautiyal J, Sarkar FH, Majumdar AP.

Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Wayne State University, Detroit,

MI 48201, USA.

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) or 5-FU plus oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) remains the backbone of

colorectal cancer chemotherapeutics but with limited success. This could partly

be due to the enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs) that are resistant to

conventional chemotherapy. Therefore, validation of a nontoxic agent that can

either cause reversal of chemoresistance or promote the killing of CSCs would be

highly desirable. The current study examines whether curcumin, the major active

ingredient of turmeric, either alone or together with FOLFOX, would be an

effective strategy to eliminate colon CSCs. Exposure of colon cancer HCT-116 or

HT-29 cells to FOLFOX that inhibited their growth led to the enrichment of CSC

phenotype as evidenced by increased proportion of CD133-, CD44-, and/or

CD166-positive cells and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) levels.

Treatment of FOLFOX-surviving colon cancer cells with either curcumin alone or

together with FOLFOX resulted in a marked reduction in CSCs, as evidenced by the

decreased expression of CD44 and CD166 as well as EGFR and by their ability to

form anchorage-dependent colonies. They also caused disintegration of

colonospheres. Increased expression of EGFR in FOLFOX-surviving cells could be

attributed to hypomethylation of the EGFR promoter, whereas an opposite

phenomenon was observed when the FOLFOX-surviving cells were treated with

curcumin and/or FOLFOX. These changes were accompanied by parallel alterations

in the levels of DNA methyltransferase 1. In conclusion, our data suggest that

curcumin by itself or together with the conventional chemotherapeutic could be

an effective treatment strategy for preventing the emergence of chemoresistant

colon cancer cells by

reducing/eliminating CSCs.

Also, with Interleukin4 inhibitors?

Any Idea ????

Karla, caregiver to husband

Crucial Role of Interleukin-4 in the Survival of Colon Cancer Stem Cells

Giovanna Francipane1, Mileidys Alea1, Ylenia Lombardo1, Matilde

Todaro1, J.P. Medema2 and Giorgio Stassi1

1 Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences, Cellular and Molecular

Pathophysiology Laboratory, Palermo, Italy and 2 Laboratory for Experimental

Oncology and Radiobiology (LEXOR), Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the

Netherlands

Requests for reprints: Giorgio Stassi, Department of Surgical and Oncological

Sciences, Cellular and Molecular Pathophysiology Laboratory, 90127 Palermo,

Italy. Phone: 39-91655-3211; Fax: 39-91655-3238; E-mail: gstassi@... or

J.P. Medema, E-mail: J.P.Medema@... .

Key Words: cancer stem cells • colon cancer • IL-4

Colon tumors may be maintained by a rare fraction of cancer stem-like cells

(CSC) that express the cell surface marker CD133. Self-renewing CSCs exhibit

relatively greater resistance to clinical cytotoxic therapies and recent work

suggests that this resistance may be mediated in part by an autocrine response

to the immune cytokine interleukin 4 (IL-4). Blocking IL-4 signaling can

sensitize CSCs to apoptotic stimuli and increase the in vivo efficacy of

cytotoxic therapy. These findings suggest that inhibitors of IL-4 signaling may

offer a new therapeutic tool in colon carcinoma. [Cancer Res 2008;68(11):4022–5]