Cells, stem cells, and cancer stem cells.

The stem cell field owes a great deal to the previous work conducted by embryologists and researchers devoted to reproductive medicine. The time is coming when this emerging field will pay off in the reproductive sciences by offering new avenues of understanding gametogenesis and early embryonic development. Human embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells that proliferate in vitro while maintaining an undifferentiated state, and they are capable of differentiating into most cell types under appropriate conditions. Embryo-friendly approaches have been developed as new methods of obtaining human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo. Somatic stem cells have been identified and isolated from numerous adult organs and tissues to create a multipotent and autologous source of cells with established medical indications. Cell reprogramming is now a scientific fact, and induced pluripotent cells, a new pluripotent cell type, have been generated by the overexpression of specific genes from a myriad of differentiated adult cell types. Cancer is now considered a stem cell disease. Cancer stem cells share numerous features with normal stem cells including hallmarks properties such as self-renewal and undifferentiation. Therefore, the actual focus of ovarian cancer research on the cancer stem cell model should generate efficient and personalized treatment designs to improve treatment efficiency. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.