Cancer Stem Cells: Current Status and Therapeutic Implications in Cancer Therapy-A New Paradigm

Abstract

Recent evidence confirms that not each tumor cell is proficient in instigating a tumor. Merely a small part of the cancer cells, so-called cancer stem cells (CSCs), can produce cancer indistinguishable from the first one. CSC model has been recognized as a cellular component that adds to phenotypic and functional heterogeneity in different cancers. The latest explanations have featured numerous complexities and difficulties like CSC phenotype that can differ extensively between patients. Tumors may harbor various phenotypically or genetically specific CSCs, and consequently, metastatic CSCs can develop from vital CSCs and tumor cells. Scientists have discovered a few markers for CSCs. The recent finding reveals that CSCs are resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy and may clarify the disease's reappearance. Minimal amounts of CSCs can repopulate a tumor. Subsequently, it is essential to understand the attributes and mechanisms by which CSCs show their resistance to therapeutic agents. These aptitudes contribute to new bits of knowledge that give better therapeutic motivations to discover novel anticancer therapeutics. Accordingly, remedial procedures that emphasize focusing on CSCs and their microenvironmental niche are insufficient for conventional malignant growth treatments to eradicate the CSCs that, in any case, bring about therapy resistance. Mutual utilization of traditional therapies with CSC- specific agents may offer a promising technique for enduring cancer treatment as well as remedy.