Emerging role of microRNAs in cancer stem cells: Implications in cancer therapy

Figure 3 Effective novel tumor therapies. Conventional chemo- and radio-therapeutic drugs target the bulk of tumor cell population and lead to tumor shrinkage. Cancer stem cells however develop resistance to these drugs and as a result of genotoxic insults, tumor cells relapse. MicroRNA approach along with the chemo and radiotherapeutic drugs as a novel treatment strategy target transit amplifying cells as well as differentiated cancer cells and induce differentiation in cancer stem cells thereby remove the bulk of tumor and also the source of cancer.