Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are tumor cells with initiating ability, self‐renewal potential, and intrinsic resistance to conventional therapeutics. Efficient isolation and characterization of CSCs pave the way for more comprehensive knowledge about tumorigenesis, heterogeneity, and chemoresistance. Also a better understanding of CSCs will lead to novel era of both basic and clinical cancer research, reclassification of human tumors, and development of innovative therapeutic strategies. Finding novel diagnostic and effective therapeutic strategies also enhance the success of treatment in cancer patients. There are various methods based on the characteristics of the CSCs to detect and isolate these cells, some of which have recently developed. This review summarized current techniques for effective isolation and characterization of CSCs with a focus on advantages and limitations of each method with clinical applications.

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Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a lethal malignancy cancer, and its mortality rates have been increasing worldwide. Diagnosis of this cancer is complicated, as it does not often present symptoms, and most patients present an irremediable tumor having a 5-year survival rate after diagnosis. Regarding treatment, many concerns have also been raised, as most tumors are found at advanced stages. At present, anticancer compounds-rich foods have been utilized to control PC. Among such bioactive molecules, flavonoid compounds have shown excellent anticancer abilities, such as quercetin, which has been used as an adjunctive or alternative drug to PC treatment by inhibitory or stimulatory biological mechanisms including autophagy, apoptosis, cell growth reduction or inhibition, EMT, oxidative stress, and enhancing sensitivity to chemotherapy agents. The recognition that this natural product has beneficial effects on cancer treatment has boosted the researchers’ interest towards more extensive studies to use herbal medicine for anticancer purposes. In addition, due to the expensive cost and high rate of side effects of anticancer drugs, attempts have been made to use quercetin but also other flavonoids for preventing and treating PC. Based on related studies, it has been found that the quercetin compound has significant effect on cancerous cell lines as well as animal models. Therefore, it can be used as a supplementary drug to treat a variety of cancers, particularly pancreatic cancer. This review is aimed at discussing the therapeutic effects of quercetin by targeting the molecular signaling pathway and identifying antigrowth, cell proliferation, antioxidative stress, EMT, induction of apoptotic, and autophagic features.

Clinical oncologists need more reliable and non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to follow-up cancer patients. However, the existing biomarkers are often invasive and costly, emphasizing the need for the development of biomarkers to provide convenient and precise detection. Extracellular vesicles especially exosomes have recently been the focus of translational research to develop non-invasive and reliable biomarkers for several diseases such as cancers, suggesting as a valuable source of tumor markers. Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles secreted by various living cells that can be found in all body fluids including serum, urine, saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, and ascites. Different molecular and genetic contents of their origin such as nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and glycans in a stable form make exosomes a promising approach for various cancers’ diagnoses, prediction, and follow-up in a minimally invasive manner. Since exosomes are used by cancer cells for intercellular communication, they play a critical role in the disease process, highlighting the importance of their use as clinically relevant biomarkers. However, regardless of the advantages that exosome-based diagnostics have, they suffer from problems regarding their isolation, detection, and characterization of their contents. This study reviews the history and biogenesis of exosomes and discusses non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and their potential as tumor markers in different types of cancer, with a focus on next generation sequencing (NGS) as a detection method. Moreover, the advantages and challenges associated with exosome-based diagnostics are also presented.

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Background: Nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) plays a key role in promoting chemoresistance in various cancers. PD-L1 is one of the downstream targets of the Nrf2 signaling pathway. This molecule has some beneficial impacts on tumors growth by inhibition of the immune system. This study aimed to investigate the potential role of the Nrf2-PD-L1 axis in the promotion of oxaliplatin resistance in colon cancer cells.   Methods: We examined Nrf2, PD- L1, and CD80 expression in the tumor and margin tissue samples from CRC patients. After that role of the Nrf2-PD-L1 axis in promotion of Oxaliplatin resistance was investigated. Results: Our data revealed that Nrf2 and PD-L1 mRNA expressions were markedly higher in tumor tissues compared to margin tissues. The PD-L1 mRNA expression level was also increased in the resistant cells. However, Nrf2 expression was decreased in SW480/Res cells and increased in LS174T/Res cells. The inhibition of Nrf2 through siRNA treatment in SW480/Res and LS174T/Res cells has decreased the IC50 values of oxaliplatin. Inhibition of the Nrf2 has significantly increased the oxaliplatin-induced apoptosis, and reduced the migration in SW480/Res cells.   Conclusion: It is suggested that effective inhibition of Nrf2-PD-L1 signaling pathways can be considered as a novel approach to improve oxaliplatin efficacy in colon cancer patients.

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