Updates in colorectal cancer stem cell research

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the world most common malignant tumors, also is the main disease, which cause tumor-associated death. Surgery and chemotherapy are the most used treatment of CRC. Recent research reported that, cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered as the origin of tumor genesis, development, metastasis and recurrence in theory. At present, it has been proved that, CSCs existed in many tumors including CRC. In this review, we summary the identification of CSCs according to the cell surface markers, and the development of drugs that target colorectal cancer stem cells.