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MINI-REVIEW

Repurposing existing drugs for cancer stem cell-directed therapy

Tanja Matijevic Glavan1*
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1 Division of Molecular Medicine, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
CP, 025450073 https://doi.org/10.36922/CP025450073
Received: 7 November 2025 | Revised: 1 December 2025 | Accepted: 22 January 2026 | Published online: 12 February 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel findings in cancer stem cells research and therapy)
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) pose a significant challenge in tumor treatment due to their ability to remain quiescent during therapy and thus evade chemo- and radio-therapy. In addition, their ability to initiate tumor formation from a single cell is another essential factor to consider when developing a strategy to eradicate CSCs. Given that developing novel drugs is a time-consuming and costly process, drug repurposing has become an increasingly utilized and appealing alternative in recent research. Drug repurposing involves testing existing medications that have already completed substantial portions of drug development for the treatment of new medical conditions. Artificial intelligence tools can assist in this process. This review presents a series of compounds, initially developed for a wide range of conditions, including antidiabetic, antipsychotic, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering, and antiparasitic drugs, that can be repurposed as targeted therapies for CSCs. Metformin and doxycycline have also been evaluated in clinical studies targeting CSCs. Furthermore, novel artificial intelligence tools will be vital for predicting the potential of repurposed drugs before in vitro and in vivo testing.

Keywords
Cancer stem cells
Therapy
Chemoresistance
Radioresistance
Drug repurposing
Funding
This work was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation (project number: IP-2020-02-4225) for the project: Toll-like receptor 3 in the development and treatment of human head and neck cancer: The role of endogenous ligands.
Conflict of interest
Tanja Matijevic Glavan is the Guest Editor of this special issue, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The author declared that he has no known competing financial interests or any conflict of interest.
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Cancer Plus, Electronic ISSN: 2661-3840 Print ISSN: 2661-3832, Published by AccScience Publishing
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