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Eliminating Cancer Stem Cells by Targeting Embryonic Signaling Pathways

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Abstract

Dramatic advances have been made in the understanding of cancer over the past decade. Prime among those are better appreciation of the biology of cancer and the development of targeted therapies. Despite these improvements, however, most tumors remain refractory to anti-cancer medications and frequently recur. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), which in some cases express markers of pluripotency (e.g., Oct-4), share many of the molecular features of normal stem cells. These cells have been hypothesised to play a role in tumor resistance and relapse. They exhibit dependence on many primitive regulatory pathways and may be best viewed in the context of embryonic signaling pathways. In this article, we review important embryonic signaling cascades and their differential expression in CSCs. We also discuss these pathways as actionable targets for novel therapies in hopes that eliminating cancer stem cells will lead to an improvement in overall survival for patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pennsylvania Hospital, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Ohad Oren

  2. Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1650 Orleans Street, CRB1, room 246, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA

    B. Douglas Smith

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  1. Ohad Oren
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Correspondence to B. Douglas Smith.

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Authors declare that there are no relevant competing interests. Also, no funding was used in preparation of this manuscript.

Author Contribution

OO and BDS are responsible for the conception and design of the manuscript. OO wrote the first draft. BDS critically revised the draft. OO and BDS finalised a final version and approved it.

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Oren, O., Smith, B.D. Eliminating Cancer Stem Cells by Targeting Embryonic Signaling Pathways. Stem Cell Rev and Rep 13, 17–23 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-016-9691-3

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