Cancer's unusual suspects

Science | Health - Jonathan Wood - | - 16 Feb 11. The standard treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia , the most common type of leukaemia in adults, is chemotherapy. But in some people the cancer of the white blood cells can come back after initially successful treatment. This is thought to be because some cancer stem cells - key cells able to drive the growth of cancers - have remained even after the chemotherapy. Understanding more about the cancer stem cells present in leukaemia patients could help improve the ability of treatments to get rid of these cancer-driving cells. Dr Paresh Vyas of the Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine at Oxford University and colleagues published a study in Cancer Cell last month that sheds new light on the different populations of stem cells present in leukaemia patients. The work, funded by the MRC and the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, could lead to tests that are able to track the presence of cancer stem cells in leukaemia patients, to monitor the progress of treatment or with the aim of preventing later relapse.