ABSTRACT
The cancer stem cell hypothesis dates back to the middle of the 19th century. In 1858, Rudolf Virchow proposed that cancer arises from embryonic tissue. This idea was later extended by Cohnheim and Durante, who suggested that adult tissue contains remnant dormant embryonic tissue and that when these embryonic cells are activated, they become cancerous (Hendrix et al. 2007, Virchow 1858).
