Gain of antitumor functions and induction of differentiation in cancer stem cells contribute to complete cure and no relapse.

The progeny of the mutated cell is maintained in a self-renewing tissue stem cell and its immediate progeny or due to cellular components that display stem cell like properties known as cancer stem cells (CSCs) that grow into cancer. Failure to achieve complete and safe eradication of cancer is due to the presence of quiescent population of cancer stem cells. Understanding and interfering with the processes of transformation of normal stem cells into their malignant counterparts, their micro-environmental niche and the mechanisms responsible for therapeutic resistance in CSCs enhance the curative efficacy of clinical elimination of all tumor cells. Functional identification of the molecular targets of CSCs provides useful insights for characterization of their response to particular therapy protocols. This review also focuses on the potential implications of promising novel therapies in suppression of oncogenic pathways specific to CSCs including their self-renewal capacity, property of drug transportation, seeding and oxidative stress, activation of apoptosis through the gain of antitumor molecules, restoration of DNA repair mechanisms and differentiation therapy that allows the terminal differentiation of CSCs thereby depleting their pool, all contribute to long-term disease control and improved patient survival. Significant developments in the optimization of combinational CSC-targeted therapies would lead to the improved outcome with great difference thus substantiating its profound impact in disease free survival with no relapse.