Identification of keratin 19‐positive cancer stem cells associating human hepatocellular carcinoma using CYFRA 21‐1

The current lack of an easily measurable surrogate marker of cancer stem cells (CSCs) prevents the clinical application of CSCs for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously reported that keratin 19 (K19) is a novel HCC‐CSC marker associated with transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ)/Smad signaling, and that K19 + HCC‐CSCs could be a new therapeutic target of TGFβ receptor 1 inhibitor LY2157299. In this study, we examined whether K19 +...