Abstract: The existence of cancer stem cells is the root cause of the occurrence, recurrence, metastasis and drug resistance of malignant tumors. However, currently there is no effective clinical treatment for cancer stem cells, so finding therapeutic targets for cancer stem cells is of great significance to guide the treatment of colorectal cancer and improve its prognosis. A large number of studies have showed that micro-ribonucleic acid (microRNAs) plays a key role in regulating colorectal cancer stem cells. This article summarizes the synthetic pathway and function of microRNAs and the related mechanism of regulating colorectal cancer stem cells through cancer stem cell-related signal pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transformation pathway. The more in-depth study of these microRNAs related to rectal cancer stem cells is expected to provide a new target and breakthrough point for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Key words: microRNA, neoplastic stem cells, colorectal neoplasms, Wnt signaling pathway, receptors, Notch, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway