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©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2020; 26(14): 1580-1593
Published online Apr 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i14.1580
Published online Apr 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i14.1580
Gastrointestinal cancer stem cells as targets for innovative immunotherapy
Mihaela Chivu-Economescu, Laura G Necula, Lilia Matei, Denisa Laura Dragu, Ana I Neagu, Irina Alexiu, Coralia Bleotu, Carmen Cristina Diaconu, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, Bucharest 030304, Romania
Laura G Necula, Nicolae Cajal Institute, Titu Maiorescu University, Bucharest 040441, Romania
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Supported by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS– UEFISCDI , No. PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF2016-0158 .
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no potential conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mihaela Chivu-Economescu, PhD, Senior Researcher, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Stefan S Nicolau Institute of Virology, 285 Mihai Bravu Ave, Bucharest 030304, Romania. mihaela.economescu@virology.ro
Received: December 13, 2019
Peer-review started: December 13, 2019
First decision: January 16, 2020
Revised: January 22, 2020
Accepted: March 14, 2020
Article in press: March 14, 2020
Published online: April 14, 2020
Processing time: 123 Days and 2.7 Hours
Peer-review started: December 13, 2019
First decision: January 16, 2020
Revised: January 22, 2020
Accepted: March 14, 2020
Article in press: March 14, 2020
Published online: April 14, 2020
Processing time: 123 Days and 2.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Cancer immunotherapy has emerged in recent years as an alternative to classical anti-tumor therapy. It involves the activation of the host immune system in the fight against tumor cells, including cancer stem cells, which are responsible for tumor maintenance, relapse, and metastasis. Here we discuss the different forms of immunotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer stem cells targeting such as using monoclonal antibodies against surface antigens, generation of effector natural killer cells and T cells genetic engineered to target tumor antigens, dendritic vaccines, and immune checkpoints inhibitors.