Therapeutic Potential, Challenges and Future Perspective of Cancer Stem Cells in Translational Oncology: A Critical Review

Abstract

Stem cell research is a rapidly developing field that offers effective treatment for a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. Stem cell is a regenerative medicine associated with the replacement, repair, and restoration of injured tissue. Stem cell research is a promising field having maximum therapeutic potential. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the cells within the tumor that posses capacity of selfrenewal and have a root cause for the failure of traditional therapies leading to re-occurrence of cancer. CSCs have been identified in blood, breast, brain, and colon cancer. Traditional therapies target only fast growing tumor mass, but not slow-dividing cancer stem cells. It has been shown that embryonic pathways such as Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch, control self-renewal capacity and involved in cancer stem cell maintenance. Targeting of these pathways may be effective in eradicating cancer stem cells and preventing chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance. Targeting CSCs has become one of the most effective approaches to improve the cancer survival by eradicating the main root cause of cancer. The present review will address, in brief, the importance of cancer stem cells in targeting cancer as better and effective treatment along with a concluding outlook on the scope and challenges in the implication of cancer stem cells in translational oncology.

Whole-Transcriptome Analysis of CD133+CD144+ Cancer Stem Cells Derived from Human Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells

“…Therefore, investigating the features and underlying mechanisms of cancer stem cells hold great promise for cancer diagnosis and therapy [20]. Stem cells in head and neck cancer, especially laryngeal cancer, have been isolated and characterized [21,22].…”

Static Magnetic Field Effect on Differentiation in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

“…Cancers result from continued proliferation and fail to differentiate and die in the proliferative zone; therefore, stem cells before grafts must be differentiated to help living body and prevent tumor formation [2,36,37]. Signals that control normal cell development may eventually lead us to insights in treating cancer by inducing tissue differentiation in a procedure called differentiation therapy [37,38]. Retinoid Acid (RA) is one of the chemicals which has been used in this approach [8], so was used as a chemical inducer in this study because of its ability to prevent cancer via differentiation enhancement has highlighted its role in the both research and clinical appliances [39].…”

Ovarian cancer stem cells: A target for oncological therapy

“…It seems that several mechanisms of salinomycin action are currently discussed. 5,[17][18][19] Studies by Zhang et al in in vivo and in vitro conditions demonstrated that salinomycin induces apoptosis in the cells of ovarian cancer resistant to cisplatin, apoptosis linked to the pathway of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). 20 Studies by Kaplan and Teksen on the stable ovarian cancer cell line (OVCAR-3) demonstrated the activity of salinomycin: 40% of cells underwent apoptosis within 24 h of exposure.…”

“…Most probably, this specific cell subpopulation is also linked to the initiation of the tumor (cancer initiating cells -CICs). 1,[3][4][5][6] Cancer stem cells manifest the capacity of self-renewal, DNA repair, persisting in the G1 or G0 cell cycle phases as inactive dormant cells and asymmetric cell division. They do not undergo apoptosis and they manifest overexpression of ABC genes, which is linked to their resistance to cytostatic drugs.…”