Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells Turn On Stem Cell Genes

Heidihill

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/09/131641/metastatic-breast-cancer-cells-turn-stem-cell-genes

The researchers say the single-cell genomics they used in this study – which a consortium of researchers at UCSF are applying to diverse biological and clinical questions – could have a major impact on the emerging field of precision medicine.

"It's definitely a brave new world," Lawson said. "We couldn't have done this even five years ago. And this paper is just the tip of the iceberg."

cp418

"Patients have their original tumor treated or removed, but then the cancer comes back 20, 30, 40 years later because there were just a few metastatic cells sitting around."

Many patients here would give anything for 20, 30, 40 years......

scrunchthecat

This is a great development. Thanks for posting.

JohnSmith

This is one of the better articles I've read and a thread that deserves more attention. It's very important research.
Killing cancer stem cells is critically important to beating cancer, imo.
5+ decades of history has told us that the conventional drugs that shrink tumors is not the answer.
If researchers can develop drugs that target and kill the sub-population of cancer stems cells and combine those drugs with existing therapies that shrink the bulk tumor cells, then we might have a potential "cure".
The article lacks details about how this could be translated to patients, so I'll make assumptions about how this would work and ask a few questions.

I imagine the stem cells are extracted from the primary tumor after surgery.
But before they do that, how is the tumor initially stored at the time of surgery?
I assume this will only work if the primary tumor removed during surgery is "flash frozen" in liquid nitrogen to preserve the RNA (versus the old, yet still common method, of placing the tumor in formalin / formaldehyde).
Otherwise, wouldn't the stem cells be too damaged to reliably extrapolate the genetic signatures?

How heterogeneous are these cancer stem cells?
How many drug targets exist?
In other words, where are the drugs that target stem cells? Has anyone looked into this?
Has any of this EVER been done with real patients?

Am I the only one asking these questions?

Meow13

Very interesting.

CAMommy

that is amazing. I hope this pans out.

WinningSoFar

It makes me encouraged that researchers are having success in understanding the complicated process of cancer and metastasis at a molecular and genetic level. If it doesn't benefit us, it will benefit future generations. Also, this particular result sounds like it might have wider application than just breast cancer.

dlb823

Fascinating stuff. Sounds like a pretty major breakthrough in understanding how mets develop. And both interesting and sad that only a piddly 7% of research funding goes to mbc. No wonder progress isn't moving faster! Also interesting to see that this study was funded by several entities, including StandUp2Cancer.

Heidihill

John, I don't know the answer to your questions re: preserved tumor tissue, but the article did say they were able to extract and sequence stem cells from blood. From another article http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/molecular_feedback_loop_may_explain_tamoxifen_resistance_in_patients_with_breast_cancer

it doesn't seem like there are clinical trials for MYC inhibitors yet.

I agree that we got it backwards concentrating on shrinking primary tumors instead of on eliminating mets. But now we seem to have the rough tools to get at the mets. A lot of refining will be needed though, Sigh.