多型性膠質母細胞瘤是大腦最常見的惡性腫瘤，是惡性腦瘤中最嚴重的一種。經過化療、放療及手術的治療，也難有良好的預後效果。自體吞噬作用是一種細胞用來清除細胞內生命週期長的蛋白質，或是清除多餘或壞死的胞器的現象。而腫瘤幹細胞是具有幹細胞性質的腫瘤細胞，也具有自我複製、多細胞分化及抗藥性的能力。所以我們推測多型性膠質母細胞瘤會有強烈的抗藥性，是因為腫瘤內有腫瘤幹細胞，而放療或化療會使腫瘤幹細胞產生自體吞噬作用，將被破壞的胞器吞噬，避免被破壞的胞器所分泌的發炎物質，將細胞帶入細胞凋亡或者是細胞壞死的途徑。
Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most serious malignant brain tumors and is characterized by resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Recent studies suggest that autophagy may play an important role not only in the regulation of cancer development and progression but also in determining the response of cancer cells to anticancer therapy. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between protein expressions of two autophagy markers, LC3B and Beclin-1 with clinical parameters in astrocytoma patients. Furthermore, the expression of CD133, a marker of the cancer stem-like cells, in astrocytoma patients was also investigated. A total of 106 thin-section slides were retrospectively collected from astrocytoma patients. LC3B, but not Beclin-1, protein expression was found to significantly correlate with resistance to radiation- or chemotherapy. In addition, high intensity of LC3B staining was predictive of poor prognosis. Furthermore, survival time of patients with high-level expression in both CD133 and LC3B was significantly shorter than those with weak expression in both CD133 and LC3B. These results suggest that astrocytoma cancer stem-like cells together with enhanced autophagy may cause resistance to radiation therapy/chemotherapy and that targeting the cancer stem-like cell in astrocytoma may offer a viable therapeutic approach.
