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Review
. 2025 Apr 14;14(8):594.
doi: 10.3390/cells14080594.

The Importance of Cancer Stem Cells and Their Pathways in Endometrial Cancer: A Narrative Review

Laura Georgiana Caravia  1 , Melinda Ildiko Mitranovici  2 , Ioan Emilian Oala  3 , Andreea Taisia Tiron  4 , Anca Angela Simionescu  5 , Alina Maria Borcan  6 , Marius Craina  7
Affiliations
Review

The Importance of Cancer Stem Cells and Their Pathways in Endometrial Cancer: A Narrative Review

Laura Georgiana Caravia et al. Cells. .

Abstract

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common malignancies seen in women in developed countries. While patients in the early stages of this cancer show better responses to surgery, adjuvant hormonal therapy, and chemotherapy, patients with recurrence show treatment resistance. Researchers have recently focused on cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the treatment of gynecologic cancer in general but also specifically in endometrial cancer. CSCs have been investigated because of their resistance to conventional therapies, such as chemo- and radiotherapy, and their ability to induce the progression and recurrence of malignancy. The activation of alternative pathways, such as WNT, PI3K, NF-kB, or NOTCH, could be the basis of the acquisition of these abilities of CSCs. Their specific markers and signaling pathways could be treatment targets for CSCs. In this article, we discuss the importance of obtaining a better understanding of the molecular basis and pathways of CSCs in endometrial cancer and the role of CSCs, aiming to discover more specific therapeutic approaches.

Keywords: cancer stem cells; endometrial cancer; signaling stemness pathways; stemness therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram with selection mode.* Number of records identified from Google Scholar, Web of Science, cBio-Portal, and PubMed databases. ** Records were manually excluded. Reason 1: Records were excluded since they were published in languages other than English. Reason 2: Records were excluded by reviewer due to inaccurate or inappropriate titles. Reason 3: Records were excluded based on this study’s research design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Secondary stemness pathways in endometrial cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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