Interleukin-12 Implication in Tumor Initiating Capacity of Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common malignancy worldwide, with 1.23 million patients diagnosed each year and a huge proportion of them characteristic early metastasis [1]. Usually, colorectal cancer mortality occurs in patients whose cancer cells metastasize to distant sites, such as the liver, lungs, brain, and bones. In detail, individual cells must reach the sites of metastasis and proliferate to form secondary tumors. However, only a small proportion of cancer cells in primary colorectal tumors have self-renewal and tumor initiating capacity, which is necessary to form metastasis or recurrent tumors, and are designated as tumor initiating cells or cancer stem cells (CSCs).