Defective genes that usually suppress tumor growth are switched off in cancers allowing them to spread uninterrupted. Usually once the genes become defective there is little that can be done to reverse the progress of cancer. However MIT researchers are now attempting to re-activate these defective cancer-suppressing genes in laboratory mice. The reactivation causes the tumors to shrink or even disappear completely. 

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are supposed to be self-renewing, but current knowledge says that these cells are only a tiny part of most brain tumors. The natural assumption then is that they are insignificant. But new research appearing in the January 2007 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press, says that eliminating these cancer stem cells plays a vital role in the eventual survival as well as growth of a brain tumor. 

In a path-breaking discovery, researchers at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center and Stanford University School of Medicine have identified cancer stem cells that are responsible for triggering growth of head and neck tumors. The study is detailed in the Jan. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Researchers have successfully mapped a gene that plays a vital role in the regulation of adult stem cell growth. This finding may be very useful for cancer patients, as most research of the future in this sphere will have a starting point.  

Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have discovered a potential new source of stem cells- amniotic fluid. The researchers reported that they were able to generate muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells from stem cells isolated from this fluid in the laboratory.