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Stem Cells At The Core of Cancer?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the heart-of-the-matter dept.

davecb writes "The Globe and Mail reports that cancers have at their core a small number of stem cells, without which they cannot spread or reoccur. From the article: '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.' If true, the discoveries of Canadian and Italian research groups may give us a new path to selectively attack cancer."

12 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Fundamental Flaw by onion2k · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's a huge flaw in the article. You don't kill the king in chess, you capture him.

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    http://twitter.com/onion2k
    1. Re:Fundamental Flaw by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      You don't kill the king in chess, you capture him.

      Yeah, in pussy chess. In girly chess you kill the king.

      And in manly chess, you kill the loser. Suicides are common.

    2. Re:Fundamental Flaw by TheRagingTowel · · Score: 3, Funny
      There's a huge flaw in the article. You don't kill the king in chess, you capture him.
      ... and then you kill him, else why would you capture him?
      --
      4Z5TX
    3. Re:Fundamental Flaw by yibble · · Score: 2, Funny

      For ransom, of course :)

      A common practise in history.

    4. Re:Fundamental Flaw by VTMarik · · Score: 2, Funny

      To force him to abdicate his throne, name you as his successor, give you his woman, and then to dress up in frilly clothes and call him your gentleman-in-waiting, why else?

  2. I knew it! by jtorkbob · · Score: 2, Funny

    The President was right the whole time! These evil stem cell things really are evil!

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    AC: Only on slashdot... could the sentence "My hovercraft is full of eels." be moderated "+4, Insightful
    1. Re:I knew it! by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 2, Funny

      Indeed - it's the stem cells! They're in it with the gays and the terrorists!

      But the thing to remember is that there's really only a small hard-core of stem cells hiding in a huge mass of normal cells, with no real popular support. So what we should do is go in all guns blazing and take out as many of the healthy cells as we can in the cross-fire, then occupy the entire body and sell off its natural resources (dental fillings?) to Halliburton for no-bid contracts.

      Furthermore, during our occupation we should beat the stem cells by fragmenting them into lots of small, decentralised groups, encouraging them to co-opt (or "radicalise") lots of previously healthy cells... so they'll seed lots of new tumours all over the body that we can wade into all guns blazing, killing healthy cells and spreading stem cells even further throughout the body, so that- Ahem.

      Mission Accomplished!

      (FWIW that was supposed to be "Funny", not "FlameBait"... ah fuck it- Karma to burn :-)

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
  3. Operation: Eradication by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since stem cells come from embryos, and stem cells also cause cancer, the solution is obvious.

    We must eradicate all embryos.

    (We should probably eradicate all babies while we're at it, just to be safe.)

  4. Core of Cancer? by smittyoneeach · · Score: 3, Funny

    Core of Cancer?
    Easy answer.
    Research me closer,
    Tiny dancer.
    Burma Shave

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  5. Four words by CheeseyDJ · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Bring out the gimp"

  6. Aha! by cparisi · · Score: 1, Funny

    Stem cells are evil! This will pave the way to a constitutional amendment to ban stem cells!

  7. cliche by IwantToKeepAnon · · Score: 2, Funny

    I for one welcome our new stem cell overlords.

    --
    "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy