BOSTON, Mass. (Dec 13, 2007)—One of the biggest stories in cancer research over the past few years has been, unexpectedly, stem cells. Not embryonic stem cells, but tumor stem cells. These mutated cells, which live indefinitely and can seed new tumors, are now suspected of causing many, if not all, cancers. What is worse, these persistent cells are not killed by chemotherapy or other current treatments. Their survival might explain why tumors frequently recur or spread after treatment. Increasingly, researchers view the challenge of getting rid of these bad seeds as the key to treating cancer far more effectively. However, because they are extremely rare, even in large tumors, studying them has been difficult.
