Elsevier

Laboratory Investigation

Volume 86, Issue 12, 1 December 2006, Pages 1203-1207
Laboratory Investigation

Pathobiology in Focus
The cancer stem cell hypothesis: a work in progress

https://doi.org/10.1038/labinvest.3700488Get rights and content
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Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that supports the idea that malignant tumors are initiated and maintained by a population of tumor cells that share similar biologic properties to normal adult stem cells. This model, the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis, is based on the observation that tumors, like adult tissues, arise from cells that exhibit the ability to self-renew as well as give rise to differentiated tissue cells. Although the concept of the CSC is not entirely new, advances made over the past two decades in our understanding of normal stem cell biology in conjunction with the recent application of these concepts to experimentally define CSCs have resulted in the identification of CSCs in several human malignancies.

Keywords

hematopoiesis
neoplasm
transplantation
stem cells
tumor

Cited by (0)

Brenton Thomas Tan and Christopher Yongchul Park: These authors contributed equally to this work.