Author(s)

Yang Zhang, Zhining Zhang, Xijun Zhou

Corresponding Author

Zhining Zhang

ABSTRACT

Cancer is the leading cause of death and one of the major obstacles to improving life expectancy in countries around the world. Currently, the discovery of cancer stem cells (CSCs) has led to a new direction in tumor treatment. Tumor stem cells can self-renew and generate heterogenous tumor cells, which participate in the process of tumor genesis, recurrence and metastasis. Immunotherapy against tumor stem cells is the current direction of human tumor therapy, and many studies have linked alterations in WNT signaling to the development of multiple tumor stem cells, evasion of immune detection, and resistance to therapy. The literature demonstrates a close association between tumor stem cells and the immune microenvironment through targeting the wnt pathway. Wnt signaling can affect cancer immune surveillance through molecular and cellular mechanisms, and therapeutic cancer immunotherapy using Wnt modulator blocking signaling pathway approaches may be the cancer stem cells to cure the disease. Herein, we review recent studies on the mechanisms of CSC and immune microenvironment and the feedback effects of the wnt signaling pathway on CSC and immune cells, as well as current clinical data on Wnt pathway blocking agents. The implementation of cancer stem cell immunotherapy by blocking the Wnt pathway has great therapeutic potential.

KEYWORDS

Cancer stem cells (CSCs), WNT signaling pathway, immunotherapy