Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a pivotal role in cancer development , maintenance of tumor tissues, and are likely to be the source of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Thus, CSCs are a promising therapeutic target in cancer treatment. The development of novel therapeutic interventions based on the characterization of CSCs is needed to overcome their resistance to conventional anti-cancer therapies. Unfortunately, the separation and purification of the CSCs from human tumor tissues is complicated

more »

... by a plethora of technical difficulties that prevent the discovery of new anti-CSC drugs. We recently developed a method for preparing induced CSC-like cells by oncogenic reprogramming of non-tumorigenic human mammary epithelial MCF-10A cells via the transduction of defined reprogramming factors. This model is a unique tool not only for analyzing the properties of CSCs but also for screening drugs that selectively target the traits of CSCs. To cite this article: Mayuko Nishi, et al. Development of an induced cancer stem cell model for drug discovery. Can Cell Microenviron 2014; 1: e461.