Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Studying Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cell Characteristics for Developing New Treatment Strategies
Published on: June 20, 2015
Cancer Stem Cells: An Ever-Hiding Foe
1Department of Gynecologic Surgery and Gynecologic Oncology, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland. jrwil@post.pl.
Abstract:
Cancer stem cells are a population of cells enable to reproduce the original phenotype of the tumor and capable to self-renewal, which is crucial for tumor proliferation, differentiation, recurrence, and metastasis, as well as chemoresistance. Therefore, the cancer stem cells (CSCs) have become one of the main targets for anticancer therapy and many ongoing clinical trials test anti-CSCs efficacy of plenty of drugs. This chapter describes CSCs starting from general description of this cell population, through CSCs markers, signaling pathways, genetic and epigenetic regulation, role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) transition and autophagy, cooperation with microenvironment (CSCs niche), and finally role of CSCs in escaping host immunosurveillance against cancer.
Related Concept Videos
Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Maintenance
Cancer stem cells are thought to originate from tissue-specific normal stem cells or progenitor cells. The normal stem cells usually reside in...
Distinctive Features of Adult Stem Cells vs Cancer Stem Cells
Adult stem cells
Adult stem cells are tissue-specific; hence, they divide to develop the tissue from which they originate. One type of adult stem cell is the epithelial stem cell, which gives rise to the keratinocytes in the multiple layers of epithelial cells in the epidermis of the skin. Adult bone marrow has three distinct types of stem cells:...
Treatment Resistant Cancers
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
Multipotency of Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Cancer

