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Stemness-Related Markers in Cancer
Wenxiu Zhao1, Yvonne Li2, Xun Zhang1
1Neuroendocrine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114.
Abstract:
Cancer stem cells (CSCs), with their self-renewal ability and multilineage differentiation potential, are a critical subpopulation of tumor cells that can drive tumor initiation, growth, and resistance to therapy. Like embryonic and adult stem cells, CSCs express markers that are not expressed in normal somatic cells and are thus thought to contribute towards a 'stemness' phenotype. This review summarizes the current knowledge of stemness-related markers in human cancers, with a particular focus on important transcription factors, protein surface markers and signaling pathways.
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