stem cells are the source of all tissues of the body - some of them also pose a dangerous potential: According to new findings, certain growths, including brain tumors, arise from so-called cancer stem cells.
From: Brain & Mind, Issue 3 / 2011
cancer is still one of the leading causes of death in the Western world. The focus is on medicine for many cancers such as brain tumors often powerless against: chemotherapy and radiation therapy or surgical removal help sometimes little - the tumor is growing constantly approached by new forms and metastases. For these failures, see the biologist Boyan Garvalov and neuropathologist Till Acker pouring from the University Hospital is an important reason: cancer doctors have been focused narrowly on the fight against the main tumor mass, neglecting a crucial component of the cancerous tumor, the so-called cancer stem cells.
As the two researchers in the latest issue of Science magazine Gehirn & Geist (No. 3 / 2011) report, have cancer stem cells, like other stem cells the ability to proliferate and develop into differentiated cells. They thus form the germ of the tumor, can always grow new - even if it is already almost completely destroyed by drugs or X-rays. Tragically, the cancer stem cells prove to be extremely resistant to current cancer therapies. The main tumor mass is indeed a basis, but the cancer stem cells survive and form new tumors.
The new findings also open up new avenues in the fight against the disease: The growth and differentiation of cancer stem cells is controlled by different molecular pathways that can be interrupted by drugs. Practitioners should therefore proceed twice against tumors. On the one hand, they must fight the cancer stem cells, on the other hand, the already grown to destroy tumors.
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