Signaling Pathways Associated with Cancer Stem Cells Play a Significant Role in Immunotherapy Resistance

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of tumor cells with properties of self-renewal, pluripotency, plasticity, and differentiation, and are associated with various aberrantly stimulated signaling pathways. They are responsible for tumor recurrence, distant metastasis, and drug resistance, thus inducing poor prognosis. Immunotherapy has achieved encouraging results. However, the resistance associated with its clinical application is a persistent problem in clinical and scientific researches. Increasing evidence shows that signaling pathways associated with CSCs mediate immunotherapy resistance. This review highlights the link between them, and focuses on the underlying mechanism so as to provide potential strategies and approaches for the development of new targets against the immune resistance challenge.