Cancer stem cells: the root of tumor recurrence and metastasis

Publication date: Available online 28 February 2017
Source:Seminars in Cancer Biology
Author(s): Claudia Peitzsch, Anna Tyutyunnykova, Klaus Pantel, Anna Dubrovska
Metastatic tumors are the cause of more than 90% of cancer related deaths. The metastasis formation can be considered as a culmination of the Darwinian evolutionary process within the tumor, when competing of multiple subclones results in the development of the cell inherent traits that favor tumor dissemination. The unit of tumor evolution is cancer stem cell (CSC) defined by the self-renewal potential, clonogenic properties and genomic instability. The cancer cells which have the capacity to colonize distant organs have the features of CSC but also exert their tumor-initiating capacity under adverse microenvironmental conditions. Recent studies support an idea that metastases can be driven by the evolved and selected subpopulations of CSC. In this review we discuss the common hallmarks of CSC and metastasis initiating cells (MIC) and the perspectives for implication of CSC concept for the development of anti-metastatic therapy.



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