title: Therapeutic targeting of the p53 pathway in cancer stem cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a high profile drug target for cancer therapeutics due to their indispensable role in cancer progression, maintenance and therapeutic resistance. Restoring wild-type (WT) p53 function is an attractive new therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer due to the well-described powerful tumor suppressor function of p53. As emerging evidence intimately links p53 and stem cell biology, this approach also provides an opportunity to target CSCs.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review covers the therapeutic approaches to restore the function of WT p53, cancer and normal stem cell biology in relation to p53 and the downstream effects of p53 on CSCs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The restoration of WT p53 function by targeting p53 directly, its interacting proteins or its family members holds promise as a new class of cancer therapies. This review examines the impact that such therapies may have on normal and CSCs based on the current evidence linking p53 signaling with these populations.
authors.affiliation: Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, Penn State College of Medicine, Laboratory of Translational Oncology and Experimental Cancer Therapeutics, Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), 500 University Drive, Room T4423, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Varun V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Prabhu
authors.forename: Joshua E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Shengliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hairong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Wafik S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: El-Deiry
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53