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The Great Escape: The Power of Cancer Stem Cells to Evade Programmed Cell Death.

Vanessa CastelliAntonio GiordanoElisabetta BenedettiFrancesco GiansantiMassimiliano QuintilianiAnnamaria CiminiMichele D'Angelo
Published in: Cancers (2021)
Cancer is one of the primary causes of death worldwide. Tumour malignancy is related to tumor heterogeneity, which has been suggested to be due to a small subpopulation of tumor cells named cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs exert a key role in metastasis development, tumor recurrence, and also epithelial-mesenchymal transition, apoptotic resistance, self-renewal, tumorigenesis, differentiation, and drug resistance. Several current therapies fail to eradicate tumors due to the ability of CSCs to escape different programmed cell deaths. Thus, developing CSC-selective and programmed death-inducing therapeutic approaches appears to be of primary importance. In this review, we discuss the main programmed cell death occurring in cancer and the promising CSC-targeting agents developed in recent years. Even if the reported studies are encouraging, further investigations are necessary to establish a combination of agents able to eradicate CSCs or inhibit their growth and proliferation.
Keyphrases
  • cancer stem cells
  • papillary thyroid
  • epithelial mesenchymal transition
  • squamous cell
  • signaling pathway
  • stem cells
  • lymph node metastasis
  • childhood cancer
  • cell therapy
  • squamous cell carcinoma
  • cancer therapy