At the name-day of my daughter- Sophia, (meaning wisdom), Cancer cell journal published an article about cancer stem cells. Two years ago the existence of cancer stem cells was already established in mice. Cancer stem cell are mutated stem cells responsible for the development and growth of cancer. If the same occurs in humans has remained controversial.
Now, for the first time, researchers from Karolinska and Oxford, have tracked a gene mutation in MDS (form of blood cancer) back to a distinct set of so called MDS-Stem cells. MDS-Stem cells are considered to be the root of MDS. The study was only performed on MDS patients and thus cancer stem cells can only be proved for this particular condition.
It is considered among scientists that similar cancer stem cell likely lie behind the development of other cancers. This would be of great importance for future treatments, because it would mean that at the root of any cancer a set of cells is responsible for cancers growth. In theory, treatments could be specifically developed in such way that this distinct set of cancer stem cells gets destroyed and the cancer gets eradicated. That sounds terrific but unfortunately the risk still remain that a normal stem cell acquires genetic mutations that turns them in cancer stem cells and there will still be cancers difficult to treat. Even though this finding is not changing the cancer treatment (yet) it opens up the possibility of more effective cancer therapies which could target the root of the cancer and help more people to survive.
Na dan imena moje kcerke Sophia-(znacenje : mudrost), Cancer Cell je publicirao clanak o kancerogenim maticnim celijama. Prije dvije godine je vec etablirano postojanje kancerogeni maticni celija u misevima. Kancerogene maticne celije su mutirane maticne celije koje su odgovorne za rast raka. Da li se to isto desava u ljudima se do sada smatralo kontroverznim.
Sada medjutim, po prvi put, naucnici iz Karolinskog Instituta i Oxforda, su uspjeli pratiti gensku mutaciju u MDS:u (forma raka krvi) unazad do posebne grupe-(seta) kancerogeni maticni celija koje se smatraju kao korijen MDS:a. Studija je provedena samo na MDS-pacijentima zbog cega se kancerogene maticne celije samo mogu dokazati na ovo posebno stanje.
Medju naucnicima se smatra da slicne kancerogene maticne celije stoje iza razvoja drugih vrsta rakova. Ovo je mnogo vazno za buduce terapije, jer bi to znacilo da je korijen svakog raka jedan set kancerogeni maticni celija odgovorne za sirenje raka. U teoriji, terapije bi se mogle specificno razviti tako da se ova posebna grupa kancerogeni maticni celija unisti i rak se iskorijeni. Ovo zvuci strasno dobro, ali nazost rizik preostaje da normalne maticne celije mutiraju i da se pretvore u nove kancerogene maticne celije. Zato ce uvijek i biti rakova koji su teski za (iz)lijeciti. Iako se (za sad) ne mijenja terapija, otvaraju se nove mogucnosti za razvoj efektivniji terapija koje bi ciljano unistavale kancerogene maticne celije i samim tim pomogle vise ljudi da prezive.