Cancer Stem Cells and the Slow Cycling Phenotype: How to Cut the Gordian Knot Driving Resistance to Therapy in Melanoma.

ABSTRACT: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have historically been defined as slow cycling elements that are able to differentiate into mature cells but without dedifferentiation in the opposite direction. Thanks to advances in genomic and non-genomic technologies, the CSC theory has more recently been reconsidered in a dynamic manner according to a "phenotype switching" plastic model. Transcriptional reprogramming rewires this plasticity and enables heterogeneous tumors to influence cancer progression and to adapt themselves to drug exposure by selecting a subpopulation of slow cycling cells, similar in nature to the originally defined CSCs. This model has been conceptualized for malignant melanoma tailored to explain resistance to target therapies. Here, we conducted a bioinformatics analysis of available

SUBMITTER: Fattore L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7696527 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature