Abstrakt
Bone sarcomas are commonly characterized by a high degree of intratumor heterogeneity. The gaining of this diversity in cellular subpopulations involve both a clonal (epi)genetic evolution and a hierarchical organization of these clones which is governed by subsets of cells able to sustain growth.
These cancer stem cells (CSCs) subpopulations are responsible for relapses and metastasis due to several stem cell-related properties that endow them with drug resistance and increased invasiveness. Different subsets of CSCs have been identified according to several stem cell-related traits and/or marker expression.
Once isolated, CSCs subpopulations must demonstrate a higher tumorigenic and self-renewal potential, when compared to nonselected subpopulations. This chapter focuses on the description of CSCs subpopulations isolated from the most frequent bone sarcoma types.
In addition, we recapitulate the molecular signaling that regulates the stemness state and the metastatic dissemination and discuss the dynamics that regulate clonal evolution in bone sarcomas.