Stem Cell Biology and Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Many, if not all, cancers arise from the transformation of a stem/progenitor cell that gives rise to the cells of a tissue. At least two genetic insults are needed for cancer. The first gives rise to a cancer initiating cell (preleukemic) that remains dormant because these cells are found in persons who will never develop cancer. The second insult transforms the cancer initiating cell into a cancer stem cell that is required for cancer. These cells sustain a cancer, by generating a hierarchy of differentiating or partially differentiating cells, and they are also largely responsible for disease relapse and metastasis. There is the urgent need to develop new treatments for cancer that can eliminate cancer stem cells. There are two reasons. Conventional chemotherapeutics and radiotherapy are often highly effective against the bulk cells of a cancer, which are proliferating, but they spare cancer stem cells that are liable to lead to relapses. And, therapeutics that specifically target cancer stem cells may provide a bone fide cure for cancer. The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the nature of normal stem cells and cancer stem cells, the extracellular and intracellular controls on the behaviour of these cells, and how differences between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells might be exploited to provide new therapeutics.

Dr. Geoffrey Brown
Dr. Carolina Vicente-Dueñas
Dr. Isidro Sanchez-Garcia
Guest Editors

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