Cancer stem cells in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most intractable challenges among human diseases with poor prognosis and shortness of effective therapeutic options. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), a tumor sub-population, are considered the cause of tumor growth, differentiation, metastasis and therapeutic resistance, etc. In this review, we discuss the known methods for isolation and verification of ESCC CSCs, the biomarkers of ESCC CSCs and their significance in diagnosis and prognosis. Then we review the ESCC CSC signaling pathway and therapeutic resistance. In pace with the detailed studies of ESCC CSCs increasing, treatment strategies of ESCC based on CSCs are becoming more promising.