Posted by Sir Four at 12:36pm Nov 21 '06A very interesting article
Research is finding that abnormal stem cells are the driving force behind most--perhaps all--cancerous tumors. In the past, the cells that make up the tumor were thought to be homogeneous. It turns out that 1 in 60,000 (according to the article) are these abnormal stem cells, which cause the tumor to grow and spread. And what's worse, they are highly resistent to the treatments that kill off the other 60,000 cells.
This explains why tumors can be seemingly obliterated by radiation or chemo, only to return or pop up in new locations. The treatment kills the bulk of the cancerous cells, but not these indetectible stem cells, which continue to cause new tumor growth.
"All of our thinking about how to treat cancer needs to be rethought," says Alan Bernstein, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "It is not unreasonable to say that all this time, the 30 or 40 years that chemotherapy and radiation [have] been around, we've been going after the wrong cells."
The science that allows us to even detect stem cells is very young. In the past, their existence was completely unknown. We've designed treatments to fight to wrong kind of cells. Imagine if new treatments are developed that are effective against these rogue stem cells?
Research is finding that abnormal stem cells are the driving force behind most--perhaps all--cancerous tumors. In the past, the cells that make up the tumor were thought to be homogeneous. It turns out that 1 in 60,000 (according to the article) are these abnormal stem cells, which cause the tumor to grow and spread. And what's worse, they are highly resistent to the treatments that kill off the other 60,000 cells.
This explains why tumors can be seemingly obliterated by radiation or chemo, only to return or pop up in new locations. The treatment kills the bulk of the cancerous cells, but not these indetectible stem cells, which continue to cause new tumor growth.
"All of our thinking about how to treat cancer needs to be rethought," says Alan Bernstein, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "It is not unreasonable to say that all this time, the 30 or 40 years that chemotherapy and radiation [have] been around, we've been going after the wrong cells."
The science that allows us to even detect stem cells is very young. In the past, their existence was completely unknown. We've designed treatments to fight to wrong kind of cells. Imagine if new treatments are developed that are effective against these rogue stem cells?