Affiliation

• ¹Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-and-Neck Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan
• ²Department of Molecular and Tumour Pathology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan

Corresponding Author

Yasufumi Omori, Professor, Department of Molecular and Tumour Pathology, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1-1, Hondo, Akita, 010-8543 Japan, Tel: +81 18-884-6059/ Fax: +81 18-836-2601; E-mail: yasu@med.akita-u.ac.jp

Citation

Kawasaki, Y., et al. Increased Expression of CD44v9, A Cancer Stem Cell Marker, in Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells after Irradiation. (2017) Int J Cancer Oncol 4(2): 1-5.

Copy rights

© 2017 Kawasaki, Y. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords

Abstract

  Cancer stem cells are one of the most promising targets for cancer treatment. In head and neck cancer, CD44 has been regarded as a cancer stem cell marker. However, apart from the standard CD44 (CD44s), many other variants of CD44 exist, and their specific roles are still unknown. Radiation resistance is a known characteristic of cancer stem cells. Therefore, we irradiated five head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and investigated whether the expression patterns of CD44 variants changed. Common results showed that the number of CD44s-positive cells decreased and that of CD44 variant 9 (CD44v9)-positive cells increased. This suggested that CD44v9 is useful as a marker for cancer stem cells and may be a target for therapy.