Unravelling Cancer Stem Cell Potential

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Cancer

Specialty Oncology

Date 2013 Sep 25

PMID 24060864

Citations 437

Authors

Benjamin Beck

Cedric Blanpain

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The maintenance and repair of many adult tissues are ensured by stem cells (SCs), which reside at the top of the cellular hierarchy of these tissues. Functional assays, such as in vitro clonogenic assays, transplantation and in vivo lineage tracing, have been used to assess the renewing and differentiation potential of normal SCs. Similar strategies have suggested that solid tumours may also be hierarchically organized and contain cancer SCs (CSCs) that sustain tumour growth and relapse after therapy. In this Opinion article, we discuss the different parallels that can be drawn between adult SCs and CSCs in solid tumours.

Citing Articles

Notch signaling in the tumor immune microenvironment of colorectal cancer: mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities.

Sun J, Chen Y, Xu Z, Wang W, Li P J Transl Med. 2025; 23(1):315.

PMID: 40075484 PMC: 11900264. DOI: 10.1186/s12967-025-06282-z.

Cascade specific endogenous Fe interference and catalysis for tumor therapy with stemness suppression.

Chen J, Wang Y, Huang J, Yang Z, Niu H, Su X Natl Sci Rev. 2025; 12(2):nwae434.

PMID: 39967605 PMC: 11833684. DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwae434.

Rack1 promotes breast cancer stemness properties and tumorigenesis through the E2F1-SOX2 axis.

Jia Y, Zhang L, Zhou W, Chen S, Zhang H, Liu L Cancer Cell Int. 2025; 25(1):40.

PMID: 39939870 PMC: 11823217. DOI: 10.1186/s12935-025-03678-1.

Circular RNAs in cancer stem cells: Insights into their roles and mechanisms (Review).

Yang L, Yi Y, Mei Z, Huang D, Tang S, Hu L Int J Mol Med. 2025; 55(3).

PMID: 39930823 PMC: 11781527. DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2025.5491.

Protein-Based Predictive Biomarkers to Personalize Neoadjuvant Therapy for Bladder Cancer-A Systematic Review of the Current Status.

Bedore S, van der Eerden J, Boghani F, Patel S, Yassin S, Aguilar K Int J Mol Sci. 2024; 25(18).

PMID: 39337385 PMC: 11432686. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25189899.

References

Pierce Jr G, DIXON Jr F, VERNEY E . Teratocarcinogenic and tissue-forming potentials of the cell types comprising neoplastic embryoid bodies. Lab Invest. 1960; 9:583-602. View

Bao S, Wu Q, McLendon R, Hao Y, Shi Q, Hjelmeland A . Glioma stem cells promote radioresistance by preferential activation of the DNA damage response. Nature. 2006; 444(7120):756-60. DOI: 10.1038/nature05236. View

Beck B, Driessens G, Goossens S, Youssef K, Kuchnio A, Caauwe A . A vascular niche and a VEGF-Nrp1 loop regulate the initiation and stemness of skin tumours. Nature. 2011; 478(7369):399-403. DOI: 10.1038/nature10525. View

Jung P, Sato T, Merlos-Suarez A, Barriga F, Iglesias M, Rossell D . Isolation and in vitro expansion of human colonic stem cells. Nat Med. 2011; 17(10):1225-7. DOI: 10.1038/nm.2470. View

Batlle E, Henderson J, Beghtel H, van den Born M, Sancho E, Huls G . Beta-catenin and TCF mediate cell positioning in the intestinal epithelium by controlling the expression of EphB/ephrinB. Cell. 2002; 111(2):251-63. DOI: 10.1016/s0092-8674(02)01015-2. View

Doupe D, Alcolea M, Roshan A, Zhang G, Klein A, Simons B . A single progenitor population switches behavior to maintain and repair esophageal epithelium. Science. 2012; 337(6098):1091-3. PMC: 3527005. DOI: 10.1126/science.1218835. View

Lapouge G, Beck B, Nassar D, Dubois C, Dekoninck S, Blanpain C . Skin squamous cell carcinoma propagating cells increase with tumour progression and invasiveness. EMBO J. 2012; 31(24):4563-75. PMC: 3545290. DOI: 10.1038/emboj.2012.312. View

Huch M, Dorrell C, Boj S, van Es J, Li V, van de Wetering M . In vitro expansion of single Lgr5+ liver stem cells induced by Wnt-driven regeneration. Nature. 2013; 494(7436):247-50. PMC: 3634804. DOI: 10.1038/nature11826. View

Dalerba P, Kalisky T, Sahoo D, Rajendran P, Rothenberg M, Leyrat A . Single-cell dissection of transcriptional heterogeneity in human colon tumors. Nat Biotechnol. 2011; 29(12):1120-7. PMC: 3237928. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2038. View

10.

Friedmann-Morvinski D, Bushong E, Ke E, Soda Y, Marumoto T, Singer O . Dedifferentiation of neurons and astrocytes by oncogenes can induce gliomas in mice. Science. 2012; 338(6110):1080-4. PMC: 3595315. DOI: 10.1126/science.1226929. View

11.

Chow D, Wenning L, Miller W, Papoutsakis E . Modeling pO(2) distributions in the bone marrow hematopoietic compartment. I. Krogh's model. Biophys J. 2001; 81(2):675-84. PMC: 1301544. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3495(01)75732-3. View

12.

Quintana E, Shackleton M, Sabel M, Fullen D, Johnson T, Morrison S . Efficient tumour formation by single human melanoma cells. Nature. 2008; 456(7222):593-8. PMC: 2597380. DOI: 10.1038/nature07567. View

13.

Kobayashi K, Rochat A, Barrandon Y . Segregation of keratinocyte colony-forming cells in the bulge of the rat vibrissa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993; 90(15):7391-5. PMC: 47143. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.90.15.7391. View

14.

Gerrits A, Dykstra B, Kalmykowa O, Klauke K, Verovskaya E, Broekhuis M . Cellular barcoding tool for clonal analysis in the hematopoietic system. Blood. 2010; 115(13):2610-8. DOI: 10.1182/blood-2009-06-229757. View

15.

Hashimoto O, Shimizu K, Semba S, Chiba S, Ku Y, Yokozaki H . Hypoxia induces tumor aggressiveness and the expansion of CD133-positive cells in a hypoxia-inducible factor-1α-dependent manner in pancreatic cancer cells. Pathobiology. 2011; 78(4):181-92. DOI: 10.1159/000325538. View

16.

Chen J, Li Y, Yu T, McKay R, Burns D, Kernie S . A restricted cell population propagates glioblastoma growth after chemotherapy. Nature. 2012; 488(7412):522-6. PMC: 3427400. DOI: 10.1038/nature11287. View

17.

Mani S, Guo W, Liao M, Eaton E, Ayyanan A, Zhou A . The epithelial-mesenchymal transition generates cells with properties of stem cells. Cell. 2008; 133(4):704-15. PMC: 2728032. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.03.027. View

18.

Purton L, Scadden D . Limiting factors in murine hematopoietic stem cell assays. Cell Stem Cell. 2008; 1(3):263-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2007.08.016. View

19.

Ishizawa K, Rasheed Z, Karisch R, Wang Q, Kowalski J, Susky E . Tumor-initiating cells are rare in many human tumors. Cell Stem Cell. 2010; 7(3):279-82. PMC: 2945729. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2010.08.009. View

20.

Morrison S, Spradling A . Stem cells and niches: mechanisms that promote stem cell maintenance throughout life. Cell. 2008; 132(4):598-611. PMC: 4505728. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.01.038. View