Liver cancer stem cells as an important target in liver cancer therapies.

Hepatic cancer is one of most common cause of cancer-related death. Hepato-epithelial cancers are believed to originate from the malignant transformation of liver-resident stem/progenitor cells. Liver cancer stem cells have been characterized recently and the phenotype of liver cancer stem cells has been defined as CD133+ CD44+ cancer cells. Recently, it has been also demonstrated about the relevance of targeting liver cancer stem cells, due to cancer stem cells are related to cancer metastasis. These advances no doubt to bring the new strategy in liver cancer treatment and control in this disease. This review describes the current status and progress about cancer stem cell research in liver and discuss of the implications of these studies in new liver cancer treatment strategies.