Ovarian cancer stem cells: Molecular concepts and relevance as therapeutic targets

Abstract

In spite of recent progress in cancer therapeutics and increased knowledge about the cellular and molecular biology of cancer, ovarian cancer still remains a clinical challenge. Chemoresistance followed by tumor recurrence are major causes of poor survival rates of ovarian cancer patients. In recent years, ovarian cancer has been described as a stem cell disease. In this scenario, a small percentage of ovarian tumor cells with cancer stem cell-like properties should survive therapeutic treatments by activating the self-renewal and differentiating pathways resulting in tumor progression and clinical recurrence. The mere concept that a small subset of cells in the tumor population drives tumor..