How the interplay among the tumor microenvironment and the gut microbiota influences the stemness of colorectal cancer cells

Figure 1 Theory-based models of cancer stem cell. The ability of cancer stem cells (CSC) to maintain their population response to symmetric/asymmetric division, resulting in the first situation in two identical stem cells daughters and in the second situation in two distinct cells with or without CSC properties. In addition to the division theory, CSC undergo a bidirectional conversion process between stem and non-stem phenotype. During this phenomenon, cells can exchange their status within the tumor transforming from CSC to intermediate phenotypes to stemless states and vice versa. Also differentiated cells, normal stem cells or cancer cells through the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes are capable of initiating and promoting cancer development. These general theories are applicable to colon CSC.