“Latest Stem Cells News”

Historic Hurd Hall on Johns Hopkins’ East Baltimore campus was filled to capacity on Jan. 13 with students, faculty and staff waiting to hear five scientists—all in the early part of their careers—describe their novel ideas on how to cure metastatic cancer.

The five were finalists, chosen from among 44 entrants, in a competition on creative thinking named for John Rangos Sr., chairman of the Rangos Family Foundation, who funded the awards. Each scientist had 10 minutes to present his or her idea and answer questions from a panel of faculty judges, who would select the winners based on the novelty and scientific merit of their ideas, as well as the feasibility of future clinical applications of their proposals (…)

First up to the podium was medical oncology fellow and eventual fifth-place winner Kevin Cheung, who proposes turning back the clock on cancer cells by reprogramming them into germ cells. He suggests that the reason testicular and other germ cell tumors have high cure rates is because of their undifferentiated state. Just as scientists have created immature pluripotent stem cells from adult cells, Cheung says that the same could be done with cancer cells. By age reversing resistant cancer cells, he proposes to make them sensitive to conventional chemotherapy (…)

The overall prize went to radiation oncology resident Sharabi for his idea titled “Specific Immune Response Against Testicular Cancer: A Proposed Mechanism for Long-Term Remission.”

Incoming search terms:

Much to the dismay of patients and physicians, cancer stem cells — tiny powerhouses that generate and maintain tumor growth in many types of cancers — are relatively resistant to the ionizing radiation often used as therapy for these conditions. Part of the reason, say researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the presence of a protective pathway meant to shield normal stem cells from DNA damage. When the researchers blocked this pathway, the cells became more susceptible to radiation.

“Our ultimate goal is to come up with a therapy that knocks out the cancer stem cells,” said Robert Cho, MD, a clinical instructor of pediatrics. “If you irradiate a tumor and kill a lot of it but leave the cancer stem cells behind, the tumor has the ability to grow back.” As a result, patients can relapse months or years after seemingly successful treatment.

Cho and radiation oncologist and post-doctoral fellow Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, are co-first authors of the research, which was published on Feb. 4 in Nature. They collaborated with scientists at Stanford and City of Hope National Medical Center to conduct the research. They studied breast epithelial stem cells from humans and mice to unravel why cancer stem cells are more resistant to radiation than other cancer cells.

“Since cancer stem cells appear to be responsible for driving and maintaining tumor growth in many tumors, it is critical to understand the mechanisms by which these cells resist commonly used therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” said Diehn. “Ultimately, we hope to improve patient outcomes by developing therapeutic approaches that directly target cancer stem cells or that overcome their resistance mechanisms.”

The origin of cancer stem cells is still under debate. Some may arise from normal adult stem cells gone awry. Others may represent specialized cells from adult tissues that have acquired a stem-cell-like state through a series of mutations. What’s clear is that cancer stem cells can reconstitute an entire tumor cell population when transplanted into an immune-deficient animal, and destroying them is likely to be critical in order to stop the growth and spread of the disease.

Incoming search terms:

The first operations have been successfully performed at Seriate Hospital (Bergamo) using autologous stem cell transplants to rebuild a part of the breast after removing a tumor. The technique used in the operation is known as ‘lipofilling’, which calls for some of the patient’s abdominal fat to be removed in a procedure similar to liposuction. The fat is then purified and manipulated in the laboratory to concentrate stem cells as much as possible, then they are transplanted into the portion of the breast that has been removed to eliminate the cancer.

Incoming search terms:

The key to eradicating tumors and preventing relapses and metastasis is buried within the tumor itself. The tumor cells themselves contain a sort of needle in the haystack. Just 1% of the total volume of the tumor is responsible for reproduction, and a targeted surgery or drugs could be sufficient enough to “deactivate” the tumor and avoid any possibility of a reoccurrence. This type of treatment could possibly change the therapeutic approach to malignant tumors according to an Italian study at the Superior Health Institute (ISS) by Professor Ruggero De Maria, the Director of the Hematology, Oncology, and Molecular Medicine Department of the ISS in collaboration with professor Vito D’Andrea of the ‘Sapienza’ University in Rome.

Incoming search terms:

Oncologists are now faced with the challenge of understanding how specialized drugs can strike tumor stem cells and impair their ability to replicate and spread. This is one of the most important questions that researchers will have to answer in upcoming years according to Regina Elena Institute hematologist Michele Milella. In San Francisco at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Congress Milella spoke about future hematology issues, including fighting blood borne tumors with stem cell transplants over the past years.

“The ASH in this sense is an excellent indicator for where research is going, and represents an obligatory stop for hematologists and oncologists who study blood borne tumors. Each year, researchers meet here and outline the direction for future research until the next conference.” The research discussed here is being performed by numerous Italian scientists, assured Milella. “Italian hematology is among the best in the world, among the top in Europe, and even compared to the USA. Here at the ASH numerous high quality results have been presented by Italian research groups.”

From a hematology-oncology perspective, stem cells are considered a target in therapy; on the other hand, totipotent cancer stem cells are considered a possible key in curing cancer. “Here at the ASH we are entering into a new frontier using these types of cells to transplant preventatively treated mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow, to transport therapeutic molecules to diseased cells. Numerous studies are ongoing.”

Incoming search terms:

Scientists at the FIRC (Italian Foundation for Cancer Research) Institute of Molecular Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan have revealed how to eliminate cancer stem cells, the true reason for cancer’s incurability. Researchers led by Pier Giuseppe Pelicci, Director of the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology, and Professor of general pathology at the University of Milan, have discovered how cancer stem cells become immortal.

The same oncogenes that are responsible for triggering the process of tumor formation, also impede stem cells from growing old, and allow them to maintain their ability to form new tumor tissue. Basically, early cancer ‘mother’ cells replicate slower than other cells giving them time to repair damage making them virtually immortal. This discovery was published in Nature magazine.

“Current drugs”, a note from the oncologists that worked on the project explained, “are directed at later cancer cells, the ‘daughter cell’. This discovery paves the way for a phase of cures aimed at hitting original cancer stem cells or the mother cells”. New drugs with this function are already in the clinical testing phase on human beings: “In the next 5-10 years these drugs could become available for some types of tumors”. The study was performed in collaboration with the University of Milan.

Incoming search terms: