Biology of lung cancer: genetic mutation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and cancer stem cells

At present, most cases of unresectable cancer cannot be cured. Genetic mutations, EMT, and cancer stem cells are three major issues linked to poor prognosis in such cases, all connected by inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity. Issues on inter-/intra-tumor heterogeneity of genetic mutation could be resolved with recent and future technologies of deep sequencers, whereas, regarding such issues as the same genome, different epigenome/phenotype, we expect to solve many of these problems in the future through further research in stem cell biology. We herein review and discuss the three major issues in the biology of cancers, especially from the standpoint of stem cell biology.