Cancer Stem Cells and Their Role in Metastasis

Abstract

Cancer stem cells have been a major focus of study in recent years. However, the more we learn about them, the more challenges we seem to face. Cancer stem cells, cells responsible for ongoing tumor propagation, have been isolated from many tumors. In many tumors the cancer stem cell or a subset of cancer stem cells is the cell responsible for metastasis. Findings make it clear that the cancer stem cell is a key therapeutic target, but given clonal evolution and phenotype instability of the cancer stem cell, the non-cancer stem cells must be targeted simultaneously. Targeting cancer stem cells can be difficult due to their rarity and our inability to propagate them in culture. However, targeting the pathways that maintain stemness or targeting microenvironmental controls of the stem cell state can circumvent this problem.