What is the difference between a Cancer Cell and a Cancer Stem Cell
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In our bodies differentiated cells carry out specific functions (like a skin cell, brain cell, blood cell, etc) while stem cells can divide many times and produce multiple types of differentiated cells.
Cancer cells are differentiated cells that have managed to divide unchecked. However early on in cancer the cells are still mostly differentiated. For example an early melanoma will have unchecked dividing cells in the skin but they still look and act a lot like skin cells. Skin cells cant really survive in the rest of the body so the cancer stays local. In order for the cancer to spread/metastasize the cells will need to act a bit more like cells in other parts of the body. They will need to turn on genes that other cells use, etc. So over time some cells will dedifferentiate into a more stem cell like state and help the cancer metastasize to other parts of the body.
Recently there has been more of a focus on targeting cancer stem cells in treatments because if you wipe out 99.9% of the cancer cells in someones body with chemo, the small amount of remaining cells, if they contain stem cells can regenerate the tumors, usually with resistance to the chemo drugs used previously.
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