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Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cells

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Encyclopedia of Cancer

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Definition

A subpopulation of highly tumorigenic cells that possess the stem cell-like properties of the ability to self-renew and generate differentiated tumor cell types found in pancreatic cancer.

Characteristics

Pancreatic canceris an aggressive malignancy arising from the exocrine pancreas. Greater than 30,000 people per year are affected by the disease in the United States alone where it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death. Pancreatic cancer portends the worst prognosis of any solid tumor malignancy, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 3 %. Conventional therapies, such as chemotherapy and ionizing radiation, often produce minimal clinical response in tumor shrinkage and cancer regression. While our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression has significantly improved by examining genomic and proteomic profiling of human pancreatic cancers, these studies do not account for the heterogeneity of cancer cells within a...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Diane M. Simeone

Authors
  1. Diane M. Simeone
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Diane M. Simeone .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Simeone, D.M. (2014). Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cells. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_4359-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_4359-4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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