Can stem cells cause and cure cancer?

Simply put, cancer is caused by mutations to genes within a cell that lead to abnormal cell growth. Finding out what causes that genetic mutation has been the holy grail of medical science for decades. Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology believe they may have found one of the reasons why these genes mutate and it all has to do with how stem cells talk to each other.

The landmark studies by Texas A&M researchers Fen Wang, Ph.D., and Wallace McKeehan, Ph.D., appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and are available here and here. Wang and McKeehan studied a family of proteins that communicate between cells called fibroblast growth factor (FGF). This new research shows that errors in the way FGF is transmitted and received by cells can activate previously dormant stem cells in an organ, which can cause cancer.

"FGF is truly the Cinderella of cancer research. For decades it has been overlooked by big pharmaceutical companies because its role in cells is so complex. Now that we are starting to understand it, everyone is rushing to pay attention to the new star," said Wang, director of the Texas A&M Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology.

The Stem Cell Theory of Cancer

The duo's research, supported by the National Institutes of Health and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, further supports an existing theory that cancer is a stem cell disease. Multiple studies have shown that even within the same lesion, not all cancer cells are the same. Researchers also often find cancerous stem cells within a lesion, and many believe these cells are the key to preventing the initiation and relapse of cancer.

Stem cells have several different roles in human development. Many Americans are familiar with embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell or organ in the body; however, each organ in the body also contains non-embryonic stem cells that are specific to that organ. These organ-specific stem cells control reproduction and growth of the organ through replenishing damaged or aged cells, as well as regeneration of tissues.

Researchers now believe that cancerous stem cells may trigger reproduction and growth of cells within a cancer. These cancerous stem cells lurking within the cancer, under the radar of cancer drugs that target cell proliferation, may underlie the relapse of tumors after surgery of the primary tumor or other cancer treatments. Moreover, without the cancer, stem cells cannot metastasize, or spread.

What are stem cells, and why are they important?

Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.