Journal Article

Intra-tumor heterogeneity from a cancer stem cell perspective

Prasetyanti, Pramudita R., Medema, Jan Paul

2017

Overview

Tumor heterogeneity represents an ongoing challenge in the field of cancer therapy. Heterogeneity is evident between cancers from different patients (inter-tumor heterogeneity) and within a single tumor (intra-tumor heterogeneity). The latter includes phenotypic diversity such as cell surface markers, (epi)genetic abnormality, growth rate, apoptosis and other hallmarks of cancer that eventually drive disease progression and treatment failure. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been put forward to be one of the determining factors that contribute to intra-tumor heterogeneity. However, recent findings have shown that the stem-like state in a given tumor cell is a plastic quality. A corollary to this view is that stemness traits can be acquired via (epi)genetic modification and/or interaction with the tumor microenvironment (TME). Here we discuss factors contributing to this CSC heterogeneity and the potential implications for cancer therapy.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Cancer / Cancer cells / Cancer Research / Cancer Stem Cells / Care and treatment / Cell Differentiation / Disease Progression / Epigenesis, Genetic / Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Genetic Heterogeneity / Humans / Models, Biological / Neoplasms - genetics / Neoplasms - metabolism / Neoplasms - pathology / Neoplastic Stem Cells - metabolism / Neoplastic Stem Cells - pathology / Oncology / Phenotype / Physiological aspects / Properties / Review / Tumor Microenvironment