Research suggests that tumor relapse and metastasis is caused by minor population of tumor-initiating cells called cancer stem cells (CSCs), which exhibit self-renewability, quiescence, antiapoptosis, and drug resistance. Conventional chemotherapeutics target rapidly proliferating cells but fail to exert cytotoxic effects on CSCs, thus enriching them and driving metastasis and relapse. Hence, targeting CSCs is essential for developing novel therapies for effective cancer treatment. Pertaining to this, several phytochemicals have been identified that exhibit anti-CSC activity. However, poor pharmacokinetics prevents their clinical translation. Hence, developing phytonanomedicine can help to improve the pharmacokinetic profile of these biologically active molecules. In this review, we summarize the current state of the art of phytonanomedicine in the context of CSCs and their clinical status in cancer treatment.

研究表明，肿瘤复发和转移是由称为癌症干细胞 (CSC) 的少量肿瘤起始细胞引起的，这些细胞具有自我更新、静止、抗细胞凋亡和耐药性。传统的化疗药物靶向快速增殖的细胞，但无法对 CSC 发挥细胞毒性作用，从而使它们富集并促进转移和复发。因此，靶向 CSC 对于开发有效癌症治疗的新疗法至关重要。与此相关，已鉴定出几种具有抗 CSC 活性的植物化学物质。然而，较差的药代动力学阻碍了它们的临床转化。因此，开发植物纳米药物有助于改善这些生物活性分子的药代动力学特征。在这次审查中，