Research Progress on the Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine Monomers and Derived Compounds on Liver Cancer Stem Cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common malignant tumor in the world with a high mortality rate. Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are a small part of HCC cells with the abilities of self-renewal, proliferation, differentiation and tumorigenesis, which may be the main reasons for the high drug resistance and recurrence rate of HCC. Therefore, targeting LCSCs has become an effective way to cure HCC. A lot of evidences show that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plays an extremely important role in the prevention and treatment of HCC as an alternative or complementary therapy. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have shown that TCM monomer extracts and their derived compounds target LCSCs through a variety of pathways, providing new ideas for the treatment of liver cancer.