2024年7月5日 · Cancer stem cells (CSCs), a small subset of cells in tumors that are characterized by self-renewal and continuous proliferation, lead to tumorigenesis, metastasis, and maintain tumor...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are cancer cells (found within tumors or hematological cancers) that possess characteristics associated with normal stem cells, specifically the ability to give rise to all cell types found in a particular cancer sample.

The theory of cancer stem cells states that a given subgroup of cancer cells drives tumor spread and growth which causes the progeny of cancer cells to be highly differentiated and destined to cease the proliferation because they have restricted mitotic divisions.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a small subpopulation of cells within a tumor that express cell surface markers including CD44, CD24 and/or CD133. CSCs are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into non-tumorigenic cell progeny.

Lurking somewhere within every tumor, some say, are a few stem cells that have lost their genetic marbles, so to speak - continuously supplying a malignant mass with cancerous cells. Stem cells are key to our normal development and health from conception through adulthood.

Cancer stem cells have been defined as ‘a cell within a tumor that possess (sic) the capacity to self-renew and to cause the heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells that comprise the tumor’ (Clarke et al, 2006).

The stem cell theory of cancer proposes that among the many different types of cells within a cancer, there exists a subpopulation of cells called cancer stem cells that multiply indefinitely, are resistant to chemotherapy, and are thought to be responsible for relapse after therapy.