Cancer Stem Cells as Therapeutic Target

Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Many methods developed for the treatment of cancer but fail in the long or short term. Researches suggest that one of the causes of this failure may be cancer stem cells (CSC). CSCs, which are constituted a very small group of cells in the tumor mass, are resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which are traditional treatment methods. In addition, studies show that CSCs may be responsible for metastases and recurrences.. For all these reasons, new treatment strategies need to be developed to target CSCs as well as cancer cells. However, specifically targeting CSCs, without harm normal tissues and adult stem cells is very important. In this review, the origin of CSCs and their resistance to traditional treatment methods are briefly mentioned. In addition, it has been evaluated whether immunotherapy, which has successful results in many cancer types, is an effective option for CSCs. For that purpose, CSC markers have been reviewed to specifically target CSCs.

Keywords: Cancer, Cancer therapy, Cancer stem cells (CSC), Therapeutic target.