ABCB1 and cancer: Although chemotherapy impairs an enormous number of cells in a tumor, but it is understood that the chemotherapy agents are removed from cancer stem cells with the special mechanisms, which might be an important for drug resistance, for instance, overexpression of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC), drug transporters such as ABCB1, which encodes P-glycoprotein, and the ABCG2, which was originally identified in mitoxantrone resistant cells have been shown to keep cancer stem cells away from chemotherapeutic agents.