Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Will cancer stem cells provide more effective biomarkers?
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Cancer stem cells (CSCs) represent a rare subpopulation of tumor cells responsible for tumor initiation and eventual patient relapse. Strong preclinical evidence points to the importance of this population for therapeutic intervention and currently there are several anti-CSC therapies under development. While we begin to advance these therapies into the clinic, there is a need to develop biomarkers to measure both patient response and prognosis. This review will discuss the experimental evidence for the role of CSCs in patient outcomes as well as the need, challenges and the hope that CSC biomarkers may provide.