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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."

7 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. fox is spinning so hard i'm dizzy by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Globe and Mail reports that cancers have at their core a small number of stem cells, without which they cannot spread or reoccur.

    So how long until we have some partisan halfwit wielding this nugget of information in his crusade against stem-cell research?

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    Push Button, Receive Bacon
    1. Re:fox is spinning so hard i'm dizzy by Froster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or it will work in the opposite sense. Its hard to argue against research that can cure cancer. There has been a lot of talk about the use of stem cells to treat inherited disease, but thats largely something that only those unfortunate enough to suffer from that disease would favour (or publicly advocate). Cancer on the other hand is something that everyone can relate to, and everyone knows a victim of. If you told even the most ardent Bush supporter if they are willing to do whatever they can to cure cancer, I doubt they would be willing to say no.

  2. Re:And this is useful, how? by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 2, Insightful
    IANAB (I am not a biologist), but this sounds like redundant information to me

    Did you at least read the scientific paper, or did you base your conclusion on an article from the Globe and Mail?

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  3. Re:Fundamental Flaw by rarity · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You don't CAPTURE the king. You CHECK-MATE the king.

    I thought "check mate" came from the Persian "Shah Mat", which means "the King is dead".

  4. Re:Operation: Eradication by clickclickdrone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OK, who clicked on 'informative'. Duh!

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    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
  5. Re:Seems too basic to be noticed only now by salec · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Only of recent stem cells, particulary non-fetal stem cells, gained the hype, so even researchers from other fields, who taught stem cells were not interesting for their work got a glance at them... and were surprised to see how closely they match description of malign, rogue cells and click into the big picture. This was expected and inevitable.

  6. Re:Vitamine B17 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The FDA are fully pwned, like the rest of america, by corporate pharmaceutical interests. Can you cite an organisation with any credibility?