G-protein coupled receptor PAR₁ is overexpressed in glioma progenitor cells

It is widely accepted that progenitor stem cells are the origin and initiators of different types of cancer that exhibit self-renewal, multipotency, and aggressive properties (1,2). This concept represents a different approach compared with previous theories, and the idea that cancer may be primarily driven by a small population of stem cells has important implications. For example, shrinking a tumor without killing the cancer stem cells may not be sufficient, since the remaining tumor cells are capable of re-growing, often with modified properties and resistance to previously used therapies. Furthermore, for the purpose of personalized therapy it is important to identify molecular traits that are specific to cancer stem cells, in comparison with normal stem cells, and this is a timely and achievable task.