节律化疗诱导肿瘤休眠的研究进展

Progression of metronomic chemotherapy on inducing tumor dormancy

肿瘤休眠是恶性肿瘤复发转移的基础,各种微转移病灶及循环中的肿瘤细胞和肿瘤干细胞被认为是休眠状态的肿瘤细胞可能的存在形式。目前认为靶向治疗及内分泌治疗等手段可以诱导肿瘤细胞长期处于休眠状态,抑制肿瘤复发。节律化疗是以小剂量持续给药为特点的化疗方式,可以抑制肿瘤血管生成、恢复宿主抗肿瘤免疫,是一种作用于肿瘤微环境,诱导肿瘤休眠的治疗手段。但因其用药方式、剂量及疗效判定方式尚无统一认识,对肿瘤细胞生物学行为的影响尚未清楚,需要进一步体内、体外实验证实。

Dormancy is the main reason of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Circulating tumor cells, tumor stem cells and mi- cro-metastasis may be dormancy cells. Targeted therapy and endocrine therapy can induce tumor dormancy in a long interval, that may reduce tumor relapse. Low-dose and short interval are two characteristics of metronomic chemotherapy. It can suppress tumor angiogen- esis and induce antitumor immunity. That means it can induce tumor dormancy through tumor microconditions. But how to use low-dose chemotherapy and what the optimal doses and interval time are unknown. How it affect tumor cells＇ actions is not clear, that needs in- depth studies, including many investigations in vitro and in vivo.