Therapies Targeting Cancer Stem Cells of the Tumor: The One and Only Hope

Abstract

The basic problem in cancer treatment remains the identification of cells responsible for maintaining the whole population of cells in a tumor. For decades it has been considered that all transformed cells within a tumor have carcinogenic potential with unlimited proliferation capacity and metastases formation. At present, the concept of cancer stem cell was introduced indicating that tumor evolves from a small population of long-live and slow proliferating cells. These cells have the capacity to initiate the tumor formation in immunodeficient animals. Among their properties, resistance to standard oncology treatments leads to treatment failure and cancer recurrence. The management and eradication of different types cancer is completely depended on removal of this cell population. Current review presents basic information about cancer stem cell, particularly, the initiation of tumor, the peculiar properties of cancer stem cell, the role of cancer stem cell in metastasis formation and discusses therapeutic strategies targeted cancer stem cell.