Dr Elaine Fuchs Explains How Stem Cell Discoveries Fuel Cancer Therapeutics

Isolating and comparing cancer stem cells with their normal counterparts has allowed researchers to identify hundreds of differences that can be used to target therapies, Elaine Fuchs, PhD, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Rockefeller University, said at the 56th ASH Annual Meeting in San Francisco, December 6-9, 2014.

“Then the question was: ‘What can we do with those differences?’” she said.

Now that they know how stem cells behave, they can understand how cancer stem cells communicate differently with their environment and identify which of the hundred of changes are fueling the cancer.