With the amazing work being done by researchers and doctors around the world, there are a vast majority of ways to treat various cancers. A question that hasn’t been as easy to answer is why many of these same patients experience a relapse. Recent studies suggest the answer may lie with cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are cancerous cells that posses characteristics that are normally associated with normal stem cells. The most important characteristic these cells posses is the ability to give rise to every cell type found in a specific cancer sample. Because of this innate ability, these cells can produce tumors on the basis of two key characteristics observed in normal stem cells :
- proliferation , the ability of the cells to replicate themselves many times
- differentiation, the ability to form many different types of more specialized cells
Using traditional therapies to treat cancer tissue often results in relapse because of the manner in which the therapy targets the. Theoretically, these therapies typically target cells that are already differentiated which make up the bulk of the tumor, but cannot generate new cells. The CSCs left over could potentially give rise to a new tumor. The importance of these cancer stems cells in modern therapies cannot be underestimated because if current therapies do not destroy enough of the CSCs present, the tumor will reappear. The origin of these stem cells is still unknown and is a hot topic in ongoing research. Ongoing research with CSCs could contribute to further applications in the battle against cancer, including:
- disease identification
- selective drug targeting
- prevention of metastasis/relapse
- development of new therapeutic strategies.
If you have any further questions regarding CSCs, feel free to give us a call at (866)-838-2798.
