It has been shown for many cancer types that the tumorigenic cells expressing common CSC markers, in particular CD133 and CD44, are exceptionally resistant to conventional anti-cancer drugs (such as 5-FU, oxaliplatin, irinotecan, docetaxel and others). Moreover, the number of such cells can be significantly propagated after therapy [6-13], which usually manifests as more drug-resistant and more aggressive recurrent and metastatic disease.
The taxoid SB-T-1214 possesses significant activity against colon cancer spheroids induced by and enriched with drug resistant tumorigenic CD133high/CD44high cells and efficiently inhibited expression of the majority of stem cell-related genes. While, combination with CMC2.24 increases its CSC-targeted cytotoxic and stem cell-modulating activities