Cancer stem cells as targets for immunotherapy

Current cancer therapies target the bulk of the tumour, while a population of highly resistant tumour cells may be able to repopulate the tumour and metastasize to new sites. Cancer cells with such stem cell‐like characteristics can be identified based on their phenotypical and/or functional features which may open up ways for their targeted elimination. In this review we discuss potential off‐target effects of inhibiting cancer stem‐cell self‐renewal pathways on immune cells, and summarize some recent immunological studies specifically targeting cancer stem cells based on their unique antigen expressi