The "cancer stem cell" hypothesis postulates that cancer arises from a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs). While the idea of cancer stem cells has been around for more than a hundred years, evidence from the fields of hematology and cancer biology has now demonstrated the critical role of stem cells in hematological malignancies and suggested that these same mechanisms are also central to the initiation, progression, and treatment of solid cancers. Clinical and experimental studies have shown that CSCs exhibit many classical properties of normal stem cells,...

The "cancer stem cell" hypothesis postulates that cancer arises from a subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs). While the idea of cancer stem cells has been around for more than a hundred years, evidence from the fields of hematology and cancer biology has now demonstrated the critical role of stem cells in hematological malignancies and suggested that these same mechanisms are also central to the initiation, progression, and treatment of solid cancers. Clinical and experimental studies have shown that CSCs exhibit many classical properties of normal stem cells,...