Targeting Polyploid Giant Cancer Cells (PGCCs) to Prevent Cancer Recurrence: Opportunities for Nanomedicine
- 1School of Pharmacy, Pacific University, Hillsboro, OR 97123, USA
Abstract
Background/Hypothesis: Therapeutic resistance and recurrence remain major barriers to durable cancer control because conventional therapies may eliminate proliferating tumor cells while allowing dormant, stem-like, senescence-like, or polyploid populations to persist. This review examines polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs) as therapy-tolerant states and evaluates whether their adaptive survival mechanisms create vulnerabilities that could be targeted through ferroptosis-oriented nanomedicine. Methods: We investigated recent evidence (PubMed) linking PGCC persistence with redox buffering, glutathione/GPX4 activity, iron regulation, lipid remodeling, autophagy, mitochondrial adaptation, and metabolic plasticity, in addition to nanomedicine potential to target these pathways. Results and Findings: Emerging studies provide direct proof-of-concept that PGCCs can exhibit ferroptosis susceptibility, while nanomedicine offers potential strategies to improve therapeutic localization and coordinate iron delivery, reactive oxygen species amplification, glutathione depletion, GPX4 inhibition, and combination therapy. However, PGCC-selective nanoparticle efficacy remains largely untested, and important barriers include heterogeneous tumor penetration, off-target toxicity, model limitations, and biomarker uncertainty. Conclusions and Perspective: The specific contribution of this review is to integrate PGCC biology, therapy-tolerant cancer states, ferroptosis, and nanomedicine into a unified framework for targeting residual disease. This perspective is timely as direct evidence of PGCC ferroptosis sensitivity and new characterization of treatment-resistant PGCC states are emerging. By identifying the mechanistic overlap among these fields, this review highlights testable opportunities for eliminating persistent cancer cells that may otherwise contribute to recurrence.
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BibTeX
@article{norton2026targeting,
title = {{Targeting Polyploid Giant Cancer Cells (PGCCs) to Prevent Cancer Recurrence: Opportunities for Nanomedicine}},
author = {Jillian Norton and Youssef W. Naguib},
journal = {Cancers},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/cancers18203411},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/18/20/3411},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Targeting Polyploid Giant Cancer Cells (PGCCs) to Prevent Cancer Recurrence: Opportunities for Nanomedicine
AU - Jillian Norton
AU - Youssef W. Naguib
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Cancers
DO - 10.3390/cancers18203411
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/18/20/3411
AB - Background/Hypothesis: Therapeutic resistance and recurrence remain major barriers to durable cancer control because conventional therapies may eliminate proliferating tumor cells while allowing dormant, stem-like, senescence-like, or polyploid populations to persist. This review examines polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs) as therapy-tolerant states and evaluates whether their adaptive survival mechanisms create vulnerabilities that could be targeted through ferroptosis-oriented nanomedicine. Methods: We investigated recent evidence (PubMed) linking PGCC persistence with redox buffering, glutathione/GPX4 activity, iron regulation, lipid remodeling, autophagy, mitochondrial adaptation, and metabolic plasticity, in addition to nanomedicine potential to target these pathways. Results and Findings: Emerging studies provide direct proof-of-concept that PGCCs can exhibit ferroptosis susceptibility, while nanomedicine offers potential strategies to improve therapeutic localization and coordinate iron delivery, reactive oxygen species amplification, glutathione depletion, GPX4 inhibition, and combination therapy. However, PGCC-selective nanoparticle efficacy remains largely untested, and important barriers include heterogeneous tumor penetration, off-target toxicity, model limitations, and biomarker uncertainty. Conclusions and Perspective: The specific contribution of this review is to integrate PGCC biology, therapy-tolerant cancer states, ferroptosis, and nanomedicine into a unified framework for targeting residual disease. This perspective is timely as direct evidence of PGCC ferroptosis sensitivity and new characterization of treatment-resistant PGCC states are emerging. By identifying the mechanistic overlap among these fields, this review highlights testable opportunities for eliminating persistent cancer cells that may otherwise contribute to recurrence.
SN - 2072-6694
ER -