Cancer Stem Cells Converted from Pluripotent Stem Cells and the Cancerous Niche

Abstract

Nowadays, the cancer stem cells are considered to be significantly responsible for growth, metastasis, invasion and recurrence of all cancer. Cancer stem cells are typically characterized by continuous proliferation and self-renewal as well as by differentiation potential, while stem cells are considered to differentiate into tissue- specific phenotype of mature cells under the influence of micro-environment. Cancer stem cells should be traced to the stem cells under the influence of a micro-environment, which induces malignant tumors. In this review, we propose this micro-environment as a 'cancerous niche' and discuss its importance on the formation and maintenance of cancer stem cells with the recent experimental results to establish cancer stem cell models from induced pluripotent stem cells. These models of cancer stem cell will provide the great advantages in cancer research and its therapeutic applications in the future.