Journal of Cancer and Tumor International

The objective of this article is to develop cell differentiation agent (CDA) formulations to the rescue of cancer patients whose cancer stem cells (CSCs) have become a dominant issue such as metastatic, unresponsive and recurrent cancer patients. Although CSCs are only a small minor subpopulation, they contribute the major fatal effects of cancer, such as metastasis, unresponsiveness, recurrence, drug resistance and angiogenesis. These cells are protected by drug resistance and anti-apoptosis mechanisms, and, therefore, are very resistant to therapies aimed to kill cancer cells (CCs). Perfect cancer drugs must be able to take out both CCs and CSCs, to restore chemo-surveillance. Imperfect cancer drugs can only solve a fraction of cancer problems. Cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs, radiation, apoptosis inducing drugs and immunotherapeutic drugs put up by cancer establishments are imperfect cancer drugs which can only kill CCs but cannot affect CSCs. These imperfect cancer drugs also cause damage to chemo-surveillance. The inability to eliminate CSCs and the damage to chemo-surveillance are responsible for the failure of imperfect cancer drugs to save advanced cancer patients that include metastatic, unresponsive and recurrent cancer patients.

CDA formulations are perfect cancer drugs made up by differentiation inducers (DIs) and differentiation helper inducers (DHIs), which can induce both CSCs and CCs to undergo terminal differentiation. Evidently, induction of terminal differentiation is the only option for the solution of CSCs. And the solution of CSCs is essential to cure cancer. DIs and DHIs are the active players of chemo-surveillance to restore the functionality of chemo-surveillance often badly damaged in cancer patients. Thus, CDA formulations are the right solution to the rescue of cancer patients with CSCs as a dominant issue.