2012 Volume 75 Issue 2 Pages 76-80
Cancer stem cells of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are reported to have relevance to growth, differentiation and proliferation of the tumor. OSCC, like many solid tumors, contains a heterogeneous population of cancer cells. Recent data suggest that a rare subpopulation of cancer cells, termed cancer stem cells (CSC), is capable of initiating, maintaining, and expanding the growth of tumors. Identification and characterization of CSC from OSCC facilitates the monitoring, therapy, and prevention of OSCC. We investigated oral cancer stem-like cells (OC-SLC) through sphere formation by cultivating OSCC cells from established OSCC cell lines within a defined serum-free medium and under anchorage independent conditions. Although HSC3 and HSC4 cells did not promote growth, SAS cells did. Sphere formation was also noted. These findings suggest that SAS possesses the characteristic of CSC.
