Characteristics of Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells

Stem cells have high self-renewal and differentiation capacity. They are classified according to their potency and types of origin, as embryonic and adult stem cells. Embriyonic stem cells (ECSc) give rise to all body cell types in organisms. Adult stem cells (ASCs) provide tissue homeostasis by replacing damaged cells and rejuvenating tissues. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) share several properties with normal stem cells, including immortality, self-renewal etc. They lead to tumor heterogeneity, invasion, metastasis, treatment resistance, and tumor relapse. CSCs are resistant to several cancer treatments, furthermore, most cancer treatments that try to target CSCs may cause off-target effects. Therefore, there is a need for detailed discovery of markers that are only specific for CSCs, except normal stem cells. Therefore, in this chapter and book, we focused the characteristics of normal stem cells and cancer stem cells, the origination of CSCs, CSC therapy resistance, and therapeutic usage of CSCs.