Comments on: Stem Cells, Quiescence and Cancer

By: James

James — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:56:46 +0000

Yes, the work is excellent. but I wonder how they can tell the cell is alive or not when cells stay in dormancy.

By: » Possible anti- cancer stem cell effects of well known drugs Hematopoiesis: Blood Stem Cell & Lineages

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:23:51 +0000

[...] more: Stem Cells, Quiescence and Cancer Regulation of leukemic stem cells self-renewal and quiescence – the role of p21 Complexity of [...]

By: Lei

Lei — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:44:36 +0000

I’m always fascinated by cancer. It’s a population of cells with self-sufficient survival and uncontrollable proliferation. This population is highly heterogenous so that doctors can hardly cure cancer with a single drug.
Several biological processes are involved in the onset of cancer, so-called tumorigensis or carcinogenesis. Some are reasonable, such as overdose DNA damage, genomic instability-caused silence of tumor suppressor genes and/or constitutive activation of oncogenes. And cancer itself is well-developed “organ”(if you want one) with self-renewal ability. You are right, that’s how cancer stem cell works. Even cell cycle inhibitor helps to keep cancer stem cell from DNA damage and carry over the “stemness”(Viale, et al., 2009). On top that, single cell xenotransplantation on a mordified mouse model found cancer stem cells constitute a large portion of total cancer population, say 27%, in some cancer types (Quintana et al., 2008).
Cancer cells are all ambitious guys, they travel with the guidance of some cell surface markers, such as chemokines, for example, CXCR4 and RANTES(S Gelmini et al., 2008). They have fun in the body, and once they find their “niche”, they stay there either hibernating or colonizing.Well, now let’s see what advantage cancer has, absence of growth restriction, stimulation of growth, free-roaming and self-repair. But that’s not all.
It’s not surprising even a bad guy has some friends. So does cancer. But it’s hard for me to accept the idea that tissue stem cells, such as adipose stem cell(Fabian Muehlberg et al.2009), actually help cancer cell disseminate just on-site. Are those stromal cells retarded or something? Are they sure they really need that kind of neighbors? Or these bad guys send out friendly information to these stromal cells?
2009 is Darwin’s year. If evolution theory is true, how would you like to fit this phenomenon into it? Cancer cells are more biologically evoluted? Because virologists already claimed that HIV is much more advanced than Ebola virus. HIV allows its hosts live longer so that it can take the advantage to spread, while Ebola kills its hosts right away. So, how about cancer?
I wanna be a devoted researcher for cancer, it’s my personal interest and passion. But, when you start a war and you find all odds are against you, will you still fight? Do you call the courage silly or brave?
BTW, My hubby reminded me that I take cancer’s advantage and get grant money from it. After all, several of my family members suffered and finally died of cancer relapse or cancer metastasis. Most of people will agree that it’s fair for me to get back something from it. I mean a career. Isn’t that too mean?

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:57:18 +0000

Yes cancer stem cells (CSC) should be quiescent because they are “altered adult stem cells”. That’s why so hard to kill them, that’s why they are almost undistinguished from normal adult stem cells.
EMT is the phenomenon of transition from normal tissue stem or progenitor to CSC, so it’s not CSC themself – it is a transition process. That’s why it’s proliferative. What is speculation?

By: Reynald

Reynald — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:58:39 +0000

I think recent data when taken together would tend to counter the assertion that CSCs are quiescent. Based on the work by Mani in weinberg’s lab and numerous observations it seems pretty clear that in the case of solid cancers, CSCs and the EMT are the same thing. In that case it has been shown that the EMT phenotype is in fact proliferative. Although this is simply informed speculation.

By: Smith

Smith — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:42:10 +0000

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By: cancer cure

cancer cure — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:48:09 +0000

cancer cure…

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