Niresh T. Kuganeswaran '16 Krishi Korrapati '17 Thomas Wan '16 Timothy Tamas James A. Radosevich
03-03-2016
Cancer relapse or recurrence is defined as the return of cancer or its signs/symptoms after a period of improvement. Surgery may not remove all cancer cells and leave behind a few which cannot be dete..
Cancer relapse or recurrence is defined as the return of cancer or its signs/symptoms after a period of improvement. Surgery may not remove all cancer cells and leave behind a few which cannot be detected by scans or other tests. It is also possible that some tumor cells are resistant to chemotherapy or radiation. Although many cancer cells are killed by these treatments, there may exist a few which contain a different genetic makeup which allows them to survive. These hypermalignant cancer cells, or cancer stem cells (CSCs), have been associated with causing cancer relapse. It has also been predicted that these CSCs are created through the adaptation of normal cancer cells (NCCs) to high amounts of the free radical nitric oxide (HNO). In the present study, we looked at the mechanisms by which normal squamous cell carcinomas become cancer stem cells via HNO adaptation. Squamous cells are thin, flat cells which line the surface of the skin, hollow organs of the body, and respiratory and digestive tracts. This study analyzed the genetic differences between cancer stem cells and their predecessors.