Reprogramming cancer cells: back to the future

Reprogramming healthy somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with four defined factors ( Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4 ) has been intensively investigated. However, reprogramming diseased cells such as cancer cells has fallen much behind. In this issue of Oncogene , Zhang et al. demonstrated that reprogrammed sarcoma cells with defined factors, as well as Nanog and Lin28 , lost their tumorigenicity and dedifferentiated to mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-like cells that can be terminally differentiated into mature connective tissues and red blood cells, suggesting sarcoma cells may be reversed back to a stage of common ancestor iPSC bifurcating for HSC and MSC ontogeny. It may, therefore, provide a novel strategy for cancer treatment via ancestor pluripotency induction