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  • Review Article
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The cancer stem cell: premises, promises and challenges

Abstract

Over the last decade, the notion that tumors are maintained by their own stem cells, the so-called cancer stem cells, has created great excitement in the research community. This review attempts to summarize the underlying concepts of this notion, to distinguish hard facts from beliefs and to define the future challenges of the field.

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Figure 1: A timeline of the important discoveries in the fields of clonal evolution and cancer stem cells.
Figure 2: A theoretical synthesis of the clonal evolution and CSC concepts.

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The author thanks E. Verheyen for discussions.

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Correspondence to Hans Clevers.

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Clevers, H. The cancer stem cell: premises, promises and challenges. Nat Med 17, 313–319 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2304

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