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Pictured here: Brain cells called astrocytes derived from brain cancer stem cells in culture. Brain cancer is one of several cancers that appear to have stem cells
By Leigh MacMillan | Image by Steven Pollard/Wellcome Images
Every gardener knows that to truly eliminate a weed, you have to pull out the root.
Nip the weed off at the surface only, and in time it will grow back. Such might also be the case with cancer – treatments aimed at shrinking tumors may be leaving behind the “roots,” a core of cells with the unique capacity to regenerate the tumor. Proponents of the idea call it “the dandelion phenomenon,” and they argue that new treatments need to target these “cancer stem cells,” which appear to be present in a wide variety of tumor types. Clinical trials that aim to extend patient survival by killing these cells are under way.
“Within two to three years, we’re going to have clinical trials to treat almost every kind of common cancer with an agent that we think targets cancer stem cells,” predicts Max Wicha, M.D., director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and a leading expert on cancer stem cells. “The real proof that cancer stem cells are clinically important will be in the results: do the patients do better than with our current therapies?”
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