Colon Cancer Stem Cells Causing 'Breathless Excitement'

摘要

In his very recent review of the importance of stem-cell ideas to cancer research, Prof. John E. Dick, University of Toronto, Canada, (who kindly provided Science Watch with early access) notes that it is not just research articles and reviews but also funding bodies that are "making strong predictions that targeting CSCs (cancer stem cells) more effectively will lead to improved patient outcomes" (Blood, 112 [13]: 4793-807, 2008). Indeed, there is a "breathless excitement" about this shift in thinking-though here, one suspects, Prof. Dick is trying to introduce a note of caution. His own special area of interest is in the leukemias, but it is research on a solid tumor that brings the Toronto group and also an Italian team into the Top Ten this time (#9, #10).