Posted on 11/20/2006 5:09:45 AM PST by Zakeet
New discoveries that pinpoint bad seeds leading to a major redirection of research
A spate of new discoveries about the basic biology of cancer is pushing researchers toward an astonishing conclusion: For decades, efforts to cure the disease may have targeted the wrong cells.
Current therapies treat all cancer cells the same. They're aimed at shrinking tumours on the basis that the various cells within them all have similar powers to spawn new cancers and spread destruction.
But mounting evidence suggests that cancer's real culprits -- the roots of perhaps every tumour -- are actually a small subset of bad seeds known best to the world as stem cells.
[Snip]
Abnormal stem cells have now been identified as the engines driving certain cancers of the blood, breast, brain, bone and prostate. And today, two research groups -- one in Canada and another in Italy -- report in an advance online publication of the journal Nature that they have pinpointed aberrant stem cells as the source of colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
are embryonic stem cells good for biological weapons?
seems ebryonic stem cells would be an excellent starting point for biological weaponizing!
so , where is michael j. fox when we need a guinea pig to test it out?
"New research has repeatedly shown that contrary to conventional wisdom, only abnormal stem cells can sprout and sustain tumours by renewing themselves indefinitely. Without signals from cancer stem cells, ordinary tumour cells seem to stop growing.
What's more, some experiments have found these bad seeds to be highly resistant to standard cancer therapies, including radiation, medicine's nuclear weapon.
The findings may explain why cancers come back even after treatments seem to make tumours disappear. Just a small number of mutant stem cells left behind -- invisible to the naked eye or any scan -- may be enough to spark cancer's regrowth."
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