Colorectal cancer cells trigger a set of genes similar to those found in intestinal stem cells, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine have discovered.
Colon cancer is the second cause of death by cancer worldwide. Current treatment for the disease normally involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy.
Most patients who are treated successfully go into remission, but nearly 40 percent relapse within months or years, when the cancer returns or metastasizes.
The study has uncovered a close relation between intestinal stem cells (non-specialised cells that generate all cells within the intestine) and colorectal cancer.
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Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common types of adult leukemia and is considered as one of the ‘good cancers’.
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common types of adult leukemia and is considered as one of the ‘good cancers’.
"Our results show that patients with colon cancer have a set of genes activated that is very similar to the set activated in stem cells. The more genes they have activated in common, the more likely it is that the patient's cancer will spread and relapse.
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When Batlle's team transplanted these cells into mice, tumours formed. Their results add to the growing hypothesis that cancer organizes itself hierarchically, in such a way that only specific cells, "tumour stem cells", are able to initiate and propagate the cancer.
The study was published online this week in Cell Stem Cell.
Source-ANI
