New ways to drain cancer's 'fuel tank' discovered
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - 15:31
in Health & Medicine
A potential weakness in cancer’s ability to return or become resistant to treatment has been discovered, targeting the ‘fuel’ part of stem cells which allows tumors to grow. By observing cancer stem cells in a lab setting, researchers discovered that mitochondria are especially important for the proliferative expansion and survival of cancer stem cells, also known as 'tumor initiating cells', which would then promote treatment resistance.