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Cancer stem cells as key drivers of tumour progression

2018; BioMed Central; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/s12929-018-0426-4

1423-0127

Ain Zubaidah Ayob, Thamil Selvee Ramasamy,

Epigenetics and DNA Methylation

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are subpopulations of cancer cells sharing similar characteristics as normal stem or progenitor cells such as self-renewal ability and multi-lineage differentiation to drive tumour growth and heterogeneity. Throughout the cancer progression, CSC can further be induced from differentiated cancer cells via the adaptation and cross-talks with the tumour microenvironment as well as a response from therapeutic pressures, therefore contributes to their heterogeneous phenotypes. Challengingly, conventional cancer treatments target the bulk of the tumour and are unable to target CSCs due to their highly resistance nature, leading to metastasis and tumour recurrence.