Research Progress on Cancer Stem Cell Vaccines

Cancer stem cells are a subpopulation of cells within tumor tissues that possess self-renewal and aberrant differentiation potential, and they play a key role in tumor treatment resistance, metastasis and recurrence. Traditioanl cancer therapies have limited ability to eliminate this cell subpopulation, making it difficult to fundamentally improve postoperative prognosis. Cancer stem cell vaccines, by specifically activating the body's immune response to target and eliminate this cell population, provide a new strategy for suppressing tumor growth and recurrence, and gradually become a new paradigm in cancer therapy. This review highlights the biomarkers of cancer stem cells and summarizes the main types and current research advances of cancer stem cell vaccines, with the aim of providing a reference for subsequent research in this field.