Abstract. Research into cancer stem cells (CSCs), which have the ability to self-renew and give rise to more mature (differentiated) cancer cells, and which may be the cells responsible for the overall organization of a tumor, has progressed rapidly and concomitantly with recent advances in studies of normal tissue stem cells. CSCs have been reported in a wide spectrum of human tumors. Like normal tissue stem cells, CSCs similarly exhibit significant phenotypic and functional heterogeneity. The ability of CSCs to self-renew results in the immortality of malignant cells at the population level, whereas the ability of CSCs to differentiate, either fully or partially, generates the cellular hierarchy and heterogeneity commonly observed in solid tumors. CSCs also appear to have maximized their pro-survival mechanisms leading to their relative resistance to anti-cancer therapies and subsequent relapse. Studies in animal models of human cancers have also provided insight into the heterogeneity and characteristics of CSCs, helping to establish a platform for the development of novel targeted therapies against specific CSCs. In the present study, we briefly review the most recent progress in dissecting CSC heterogeneity and targeting CSCs in various human tumor systems. We also highlight a few examples of CSC-targeted drug development and clinical trials, with the ultimate aim of developing more effective therapeutic regimens that are capable of preventing tumor recurrence and metastasis.
IntroductionThe etiology of cancer development and the molecular mechanisms underlying conventional therapy-resistant progression, metastasis and recurrence are poorly understood, resulting in numerous patients who still fail therapy. Cancer is recognized as a heterogeneous disease, an intrinsic attribute that contributes to therapy failure. Emerging evidence from a number of tumor systems has revealed the existence of distinct subpopulations of stem-like cancer cells, termed cancer stem cells (CSCs), that possess clonal long-term repopulation and self-renewal capacities. Theories suggest that both genetic and CSC models of cancer contribute to this tumor heterogeneity. With stemness as a guiding principle, data generated from advanced genome sequencing, epigenetics and the influences of non-tumor cell elements in the tumor microenvironment could potentially be combined in order to reveal the underlying mechanisms of tumor heterogeneity (1). As a fraction of this heterogeneous population, CSCs are inherently resistant to cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiation, and evidence has linked stemness to prognosis and therapy failure (2). This suggests that specifically identifying how CSC involvement is linked to tumor initiation, progression, metastasis and therapy resistance may lead to a more perceptive approach of developing therapeutics to target this cell population. Despite the vast complexity observed within a tumor, there are fundamental attributes of CSCs that may be exploited in drug development. A number of potential CSC therapeutic...