Novel strategies for targeting leukemia stem cells: sounding the death knell for blood cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), also known as tumor-initiating cells (TICs), are characterized by high self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation capacities. CSCs are thought to play indispensable roles in the initiation, progression and metastasis of many types of cancer. Leukemias are thought to be initiated and maintained by a specific sub-type of CSC, the leukemia stem cell (LSC). An important feature of LSCs is their resistance to standard therapy, which may lead to relapse. Increasing efforts are aimed at developing novel therapeutic strategies that selectively target LSCs, while sparing their normal counterparts and, thus, minimizing adverse treatment-associated side-effects. These LSC targeting therapies aim to eradicate LSCs through affecting mechanisms that contr

SUBMITTER: Chavez-Gonzalez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5842429 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature