Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are cancer cells (found within tumors or hematological cancers) that possess characteristics associated with normal stem cells, specifically the ability to give rise to all cell types found in a particular cancer sample. CSCs are therefore tumorigenic (tumor-forming), perhaps in contrast to other non-tumorigenic cancer cells. CSCs may generate tumors through the stem cell processes of self-renewal and differentiation into multiple cell types. Such cells are proposed to persist in tumors as a distinct population and cause relapse and metastasis by giving rise to new tumors. Therefore, development of specific therapies targeted at CSCs holds hope for improvement of survival and quality of life of cancer patients, especially for sufferers of metastatic disease.
The existence of CSCs is a subject of debate within medical research. There is also debate on the cell of origin of CSCs – whether they originate from stem cells that have lost the ability to regulate proliferation, or from more differentiated population of progenitor cells that have acquired abilities to self-renew. The first conclusive evidence for CSCs was published in 1997 in Nature Medicine. Bonnet and Dick isolated a subpopulation of leukaemic cells that express a specific surface marker CD34, but lacks the CD38 marker. The authors established that the CD34+/CD38- subpopulation is capable of initiating tumors in NOD/SCID mice. Further evidence comes from histology, the study of the tissue structure of tumors. Many tumors are very heterogeneous and contain multiple cell types native to the host organ. Heterogeneity is commonly retained by tumor metastases. This implies that the cell that produced them had the capacity to generate multiple cell types. In other words, it possessed multidifferentiative potential, a classical hallmark of stem cells.
The existence of leukaemic stem cells prompted further research into other types of cancer. CSCs have recently been identified in several solid tumors, including cancers of the: Brain, Breast, Colon, Ovary, Pancreas, Prostate.
