Cancer Stem Cells and Chemoresistance: The Smartest Survives the Raid

Overview

Journal Pharmacol Ther

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2016 Feb 23

PMID 26899500

Citations 215

Authors

Jihe Zhao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Chemoresistant metastatic relapse of minimal residual disease plays a significant role for poor prognosis of cancer. Growing evidence supports a critical role of cancer stem cell (CSC) behind the mechanisms for this deadly disease. This review briefly introduces the basics of the conventional chemotherapies, updates the CSC theories, highlights the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which CSC smartly designs and utilizes multiple lines of self-defense to avoid being killed by chemotherapy, and concisely summarizes recent progress in studies on CSC-targeted therapies in the end, with the hope to help guide future research toward developing more effective therapeutic strategies to eradicate tumor cells in the patients.

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