Stem cells are identified in pancreatic cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Researchers have identified cancer stem cells within pancreatic tumors, opening up a new route to treating the disease.
Cancer stem cells are believed to be those cells within the tumor that can self-renew and so fuel a tumor's growth. They differ from other tumor cells by the type and number of protein 'markers' they express on their surface. Having identified breast cancer stem cells in 2003, University of Michigan researchers now report the discovery of pancreatic cancer stem cells.

They took tumor tissue from ten patients with pancreatic cancer, and sorted cells from this according to the cell surface markers expressed. A population expressing three different markers was identified as having stem cell properties - inducing rapid tumor growth in mice, for instance, and having the capacity to self-renew. It is thought that cancer stem cells go untouched by conventional chemotherapy, which is why cancers tend to recur or not to respond to therapy. The discovery of cancer stem cells means that new therapies can be devised, which will target the actual cause of the disease. For pancreatic cancer, this would be very good news, for at present the survival rate at five years is only three per cent.

Source
Cancer Research 1st February 2007

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