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Cancer stem cell mimicry for immune evasion and therapeutic resistance.

Phei Er SawQiang LiuPing-Pui WongErwei Song
Published in: Cell stem cell (2024)
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are heterogeneous, possess self-renewal attributes, and orchestrate important crosstalk in tumors. We propose that the CSC state represents "mimicry" by cancer cells that leads to phenotypic plasticity. CSC mimicry is suggested as CSCs can impersonate immune cells, vasculo-endothelia, or lymphangiogenic cells to support cancer growth. CSCs facilitate both paracrine and juxtracrine signaling to prime tumor-associated immune and stromal cells to adopt pro-tumoral phenotypes, driving therapeutic resistance. Here, we outline the ingenuity of CSCs' mimicry in their quest to evade immune detection, which leads to immunotherapeutic resistance, and highlight CSC-mimicry-targeted therapeutic strategies for robust immunotherapy.
Keyphrases
  • cancer stem cells
  • induced apoptosis
  • papillary thyroid
  • cell cycle arrest
  • squamous cell carcinoma
  • young adults
  • cancer therapy
  • drug delivery
  • real time pcr
  • cell proliferation
  • lymph node metastasis