title: Cancer stem cells: small subpopulation or evolving fraction?
abstract: Central to the debate about cancer stem cells in solid tumors is the proportion of cells that can initiate, propagate, and re-initiate tumors. An initially assumed minor subpopulation is confronted with recent data suggesting as many as 30% of primary tumor cells have stem cell characteristics. This review discusses quantitative modeling studies that augment our understanding of stem and non-stem cancer cell interactions during tumor progression and the resulting fraction of cancer stem cells. A discussion of how these findings can be carefully evaluated in novel, integrated interdisciplinary studies is offered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Mathematical Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, USA. Heiko.Enderling@Moffitt.org.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Enderling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology*