Targeting Signaling Pathways in Cancer Stem Cells for Cancer Treatment

Figure 1

A schematic outlining the classical CSC unidirectional differentiation model and the plastic CSC bidirectional dedifferentiation model. In the unidirectional differentiation model, CSCs preexist in the tumor environment and solely self-renew or differentiate into the non-CSC tumor cells. However, in the plastic CSC bidirectional model, the plastic non-CSC tumor cells can dedifferentiate to acquire a CSC phenotype via epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).