Epithelial-mesenchymal transition and gastric cancer stem cell.

Gastric cancer remains a big health problem in China. Gastric cancer cells contain a small subpopulation of cells that exhibit capabilities of differentiation and tumorigenicity. A putative explanation for ineffective therapy is the presence of cancer stem-like cells. Side population cells, which have cancer stem-like cells' property, are characterized by the high efflux ability of Hoechst 33342 dye. Side population cells have been isolated from gastric cancer cell lines in previous studies. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition is very important in the invasion and metastasis of epithelial-derived cancers. More and more studies showed that gastric cancer stem-like cells possess high invasive ability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition property. A brief overview of the recent advancements in gastric cancer stem-like cells and epithelial-mesenchymal transition will be helpful for providing novel insight into gastric cancer treatment.