Cancer Stem Cells in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Only a small proportion of patients benefit from curative treatment and the prognosis is very poor for the majority of cases due to late presentation, resistance to chemotherapy and high recurrence rate. In recent years, progress in stem cell biology allowed us to explain that hierarchically organized cancer stem cells (CSCs) drive histological and functional heterogeneity of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.