Cancer stem cells, cancer-initiating cells and methods for their detection.

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis considers CSCs as the main culprits of tumor initiation, propagation, metastasis and therapy failure. CSCs represent a minority subpopulation of cells within a tumor. Their detection, characterization and monitoring are crucial steps toward a better understanding of the biological roles of these special cells in the development and propagation of tumors which, in turn, improves clinical reasoning and treatment options.

Cancer stem cells as targets for cancer therapy: selected cancers as examples.

It is becoming increasingly evident that cancer constitutes a group of diseases involving altered stem-cell maturation/differentiation and the disturbance of regenerative processes. The observed malignant transformation is merely a symptom of normal differentiation processes gone astray rather than the primary event. This review focuses on the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in three common but also relatively under-investigated cancers: head and neck, ovarian, and testicular cancer.

Cell survival, cell death and cell cycle pathways are interconnected: implications for cancer therapy.

The partial cross-utilization of molecules and pathways involved in opposing processes like cell survival, proliferation and cell death, assures that mutations within one signaling cascade will also affect the other opposite process at least to some extent, thus contributing to homeostatic regulatory circuits. This review highlights some of the connections between opposite-acting pathways. Thus, we discuss the role of cyclins in the apoptotic process, and in the regulation of cell proliferation.

Cancer-selective therapy of the future: apoptin and its mechanism of action.

Classical chemotherapy, that specifically targets rapidly proliferating cells, has been in existence for over eighty years and has proven to be fully successful in only a limited number of cancers. Thus, this review focuses on a novel, emerging approach for cancer therapy that uses alternative, and more unique features of cancer cells. This new approach facilitates the selective targeting of cancer, while sparing normal, non-transformed cells.