ObjectiveTo explore and hypothesize the potential mechanisms of cancer stem cell(CSC) in peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer.
MethodsThe databases of PubMed and CNKI were searched, and relevant literatures were reviewed to draw out systematic hypotheses.
ResultsMetastatic cancer stem cell(MCSC) was the subpopulation of CSC with the capacity of metastasis, had still not been well investigated. MCSC transfer was the tendency of migration and planting to specific target tissue by multi-steps of "homing" process. Peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer was a simplified "homing" process, and we thinked that the key steps were adhesion, migration, and niche establishment of MCSC in peritoneum. That capturing human MCSC of peritoneal metastases in gastric cancer and identifying its stemness feature to determine high tumorigenicity and high invasive ability of it were the important research fields.
ConclusionMCSC might play certain role in multiple processes in peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer, but currently it's lack of relevant researches.
