Volume 17, No 1, Jan 2007
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 17 Issue 1, January 2007: 3-14
REVIEWS
Beyond tumorigenesis: cancer stem cells in metastasis
Feng Li1,*, Benjamin Tiede1,*, Joan Massagué2, Yibin Kang1
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA;
2Cancer Biology and Genetics
Program and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA
Correspondence: Yibin Kang(ykang@princeton.edu)
The importance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in tumor-initiation has been firmly established in leukemia and recently reported for a variety of solid tumors. However, the role of CSCs in multistage cancer progression, particularly with respect to metastasis, has not been well-defined. Cancer metastasis requires the seeding and successful colonization of specialized CSCs at distant organs. The biology of normal stem cells and CSCs share remarkable similarities and may have important implications when applied to the study of cancer metastasis. Furthermore, overlapping sets of molecules and pathways have recently been identified to regulate both stem cell migration and cancer metastasis. These molecules constitute a complex network of cellular interactions that facilitate both the initiation of the pre-metastasis niche by the primary tumor and the formation of a nurturing organ microenvironment for migrating CSCs. In this review, we surveyed the recent advances in this dynamic field and propose a unified model of cancer progression in which CSCs assume a central role in both tumorigenesis and metastasis. Better understanding of CSCs as a fundamental component of the metastatic cascade will lead to novel therapeutic strategies against metastatic cancer.
Cell Research (2007) 17:3-14. doi:10.1038/sj.cr.7310118; published online 19 December 2006
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