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The Immune Privilege of Cancer Stem Cells: A Key to Understanding Tumor Immune Escape and Therapy Failure

Journal

CELLS
Volume 10, Issue 9, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/cells10092361

Keywords

tumor microenvironment; cancer stem cells; immunogenicity; immune escape; immunotherapy

Categories

Funding

  1. Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) [18418]
  2. Ministero Italiano della Salute [RF_GR-2013-02357273]
  3. AIRC/FIRC 2020 fellowship [25558]
  4. Ministero Italiano della Salute grant [RF_GR-2013-02357273]

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Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have the ability to evade immune surveillance and are located at the apex of tumor aggressiveness and therapy resistance. Understanding the immunobiology of CSCs is crucial for identifying new therapeutic opportunities in cancer treatment.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are broadly considered immature, multipotent, tumorigenic cells within the tumor mass, endowed with the ability to self-renew and escape immune control. All these features contribute to place CSCs at the pinnacle of tumor aggressiveness and (immune) therapy resistance. The immune privileged status of CSCs is induced and preserved by various mechanisms that directly affect them (e.g., the downregulation of the major histocompatibility complex class I) and indirectly are induced in the host immune cells (e.g., activation of immune suppressive cells). Therefore, deeper insights into the immuno-biology of CSCs are essential in our pursuit to find new therapeutic opportunities that eradicate cancer (stem) cells. Here, we review and discuss the ability of CSCs to evade the innate and adaptive immune system, as we offer a view of the immunotherapeutic strategies adopted to potentiate and address specific subsets of (engineered) immune cells against CSCs.

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