The origin and function of thyroid cancer stem cells: A brief introduction / 中华内分泌代谢杂志

ABSTRACT

Thyroid cancer is highly heterogeneous and has three main types of histopathology low-malignant papillary thyroid cancer, follicular cancer, and high-malignant undifferentiated cancer. It has recently been hypothesized that thyroid cancer stem cell (TCSC) plays a major role in both cancer initiation and metastasis, but the origin of TCSC and underlying mechanism in the development of thyroid cancer are still unclear. In this article, we introduced the origin theory of thyroid cancer from TCSC and the relation of TCSC to immune system and tumor microenvironment as well as TCSC-based treatment strategy. This will provide a new direction for the treatment of thyroid cancer, so as to improve the prognosis of patients with refractory thyroid cancer.