# Cancer stem cells revisited

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-batlle-nat-med/  
OnCo record `paper-batlle-nat-med` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one term page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 28985214 and published in Nature Medicine; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

The cancer stem cell (CSC) concept was proposed four decades ago, and states that tumor growth, analogous to the renewal of healthy tissues, is fueled by small numbers of dedicated stem cells. It has gradually become clear that many tumors harbor CSCs in dedicated niches, and yet their identification and eradication has not been as obvious as was initially hoped. Recently developed lineage-tracing and cell-ablation strategies have provided insights into CSC plasticity, quiescence, renewal, and therapeutic response. Here we discuss new developments in the CSC field in relationship to changing insights into how normal stem cells maintain healthy tissues. Expectations in the field have become more realistic, and now, the first successes of therapies based on the CSC concept are emerging.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 28985214 (DOI 10.1038/nm.4409). Matched by DOI alone: one term page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Nature Medicine
- Year: 2017
- DOI: 10.1038/nm.4409
- Authors: Batlle E, Clevers H
- What it means: One term page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- Nat Med 2017: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4409
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28985214/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/28985214

## Connected records

- terms: [Cancer stem cell theory and phenotypic plasticity](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-stem-cell-theory/)
- journals: [Nature Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-medicine/)

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