CANCER STEM CELL-SPECIFIC MOLECULE

摘要

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a cancer treatment drug characterized by the use of Lgr5, a cell surface marker; two substantially uniform types of cancer stem cell population are acquired and cell membrane molecules specifically expressed by the cancer stem cells are identified to thereby use antibodies to the molecules. The present invention also addresses the problem of providing a reagent for detecting cancer stem cells and a method for diagnosing/screening cancer patients, by using the antibodies to the cell membrane molecules specifically expressed by the cancer stem cells. The present inventors have discovered that a large quantity of high-purity colon CSCs can be obtained, and have identified states of two types of colon CSCs distinguished by the expression of Lgr5. The present inventors have also discovered that antibodies to cell membrane molecules specifically expressed by the cancer stem cells are able to damage the cells.