Tackling the cancer stem cells - what challenges do they pose?

ABSTRACT: Since their identification in 1994, cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been objects of intensive study. Their properties and mechanisms of formation have become a major focus of current cancer research, in part because of their enhanced ability to initiate and drive tumour growth and their intrinsic resistance to conventional therapeutics. The discovery that activation of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) programme in carcinoma cells can give rise to cells with stem-like properties has provided one possible mechanism explaining how CSCs arise and presents a possible avenue for their therapeutic manipulation. Here we address recent developments in CSC research, focusing on carcinomas that are able to undergo EMT. We discuss the signalling pathways that create these cells, cell-intri

SUBMITTER: Pattabiraman DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4234172 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature