International Journal of Cancer and Oncology International Journal of Cancer and Oncology International Journal of Cancer and Oncology International Journal of Cancer and Oncology 2377-0902Ommega Online PublishersNew Jersey, USA162810.15436/2377-0902.17.1628Research ArticleIncreased Expression of CD44v9, A Cancer Stem Cell Marker, in Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells after IrradiationIncreased Expression of CD44v9, A Cancer Stem Cell Marker, in Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells after IrradiationYasufumiOmori 1Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-and-Neck Surgery Akita University Graduate School of Medicine Akita Japan 2Department of Molecular and Tumour Pathology Akita University Graduate School of Medicine Akita Japan Editor* E-mail: yasu@med.akita-u.ac.jp
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
20172011201742IJCO-17-RA-162802082017171120172017Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. nbsp emsp emsp Cancer stem cells are one of the most promising targets for cancer treatment In head and neck cancer CD44 has been regarded as a cancer stem cell marker However apart from the standard CD44 CD44s many other variants of CD44 exist and their specific roles are still unknown Radiation resistance is a known characteristic of cancer stem cells Therefore we irradiated five head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and investigated whether the expression patterns of CD44 variants changed Common results showed that the number of CD44s-positive cells decreased and that of CD44 variant 9 CD44v9 -positive cells increased This suggested that CD44v9 is useful as a marker for cancer stem cells and may be a target for therapy 10