Alternative splice variants of DCLK1 mark cancer stem cells, promote self‐renewal and drug‐resistance, and can be targeted to inhibit tumorigenesis in kidney cancer

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common and devastating disease characterized by a hypoxic microenvironment, epithelial‐mesenchymal transition and potent resistance to therapy evidencing the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Various CSC markers have been studied in RCC, but overall there is limited data on their role and most markers studied have been relatively nonspecific. Doublecortin‐like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is a validated CSC marker in the...