Over the last thirty years, the foremost inspiration for research on metastasis, cancer recurrence, and increased resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy has been the notion of cancer stem cells.The twenty-eight chapters assembled in Cancer Stem Cells - The Cutting Edge summarize the work of cancer researchers and oncologists at leading universities and hospitals around the world on every aspect of cancer stem cells, from theory and models to specific applications (glioma), from laboratory research on signal pathways to clinical trials of bio-therapies using a host of devices, from solutions to laboratory problems to speculation on cancers' stem cells' evolution. Cancer stem cells may or may not be a subset of slowly dividing cancer cells that both disseminate cancers and defy oncotoxic drugs and radiation directed at rapidly dividing bulk cancer cells, but research on cancer stem cells has paid dividends for cancer prevention, detection, targeted treatment, and improved prognosis.
