title: Sheep, wolf, or werewolf: cancer stem cells and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
abstract: Multiple cancers contain subpopulations that exhibit characteristics of cancer stem cells (CSCs), the ability to self-renew and seed heterogeneous tumors. Recent evidence suggests two potentially overlapping models for these phenotypes: one where stem cells arise from multipotent progenitor cells, and another where they are created via an epithelial to mesenchymal transition. Unraveling this issue is critical, as it underlies phenomena such as metastasis and therapeutic resistance. Therefore, there is intense interest in understanding these two types of CSSs, how they differ from differentiated cancer cells, the mechanisms that drive their phenotypes, and how that knowledge can be incorporated into therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States; School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States; Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States. Electronic address: jeffrey.t.chang@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Sendurai A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology* / Q000528:radiation effects
keywords: Cancer stem cells; Cellular plasticity; EMT; Epithelial–mesenchymal transition