Fig. 1

Emerging therapeutic strategies against primary cancer. Researchers and clinicians have explored three mainstay strategies for cancer treatment: regulating the immune responses to cancer cells; reprogramming cancer cells into benign cells; directly eradicating cancer stem cells. Immunotherapy and targeted therapy have better therapeutic performance comparing to conventional chemo-/radio-therapy, but their effects are still suffering from the existence of cancer stem cells and heterogeneity. Cancer cell reprogramming therapy elicits a potential to convert cancer cells into benign cells regardless of cell subtypes. Although cancer cell reprogramming therapy has not entered clinical trials to date, progress still continues