Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common digestive malignancyin the world, which is frequently diagnosed at late stage with a poor prognosis. For most patients with advanced HCC, the therapeutic options arelimiteddue to cancer occurrence of drug resistance. Hepatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) account for a small subset of tumor cells with the ability of self-renewal and differentiationin HCC. It is widely recognized that the presence of CSCs contributes to primary and acquired drug resistance. Therefore, hepatic CSCs-targeted therapy is considered as a promising strategy to overcome drug resistance and improve therapeutic outcome in HCC. In this article, we review drug resistance in HCC and provide a summary of potential targets for CSCs-based therapy. In addition, the development of CSCs-targeted therapeuticsagainst drug resistance in HCC is summarized in both preclinical and clinical trials. The in-depth understanding of CSCs-related drug resistance in HCC will favor optimization of the current therapeutic strategies and gain encouraging therapeutic outcomes.

中文翻译：

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基于癌症干细胞的肝细胞癌耐药性治疗的潜在靶点和治疗方法


肝细胞癌（HCC）是世界上最常见的消化道恶性肿瘤，诊断时往往已处于晚期，预后较差。对于大多数晚期HCC患者来说，由于癌症出现耐药性，治疗选择受到限制。肝癌干细胞（CSC）是肝癌中具有自我更新和分化能力的肿瘤细胞的一小部分。人们普遍认为，CSC 的存在会导致原发性和获得性耐药性。因此，肝脏 CSC 靶向治疗被认为是克服 HCC 耐药性和改善治疗结果的有前景的策略。在本文中，我们回顾了 HCC 的耐药性，并总结了基于 CSC 的治疗的潜在靶点。此外，在临床前和临床试验中总结了针对 HCC 耐药性的 CSC 靶向治疗的发展。对肝癌中CSC相关耐药性的深入了解将有利于优化当前的治疗策略并获得令人鼓舞的治疗结果。