Cancer growth could come from a single cell – now is the time to target it

Cancer remains a scary and largely incurable disease. The toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy mean that the cure often seems as serious as the disease, not to mention the risk of recurrence and spread of the tumor.

The treatment of cancer always follows an almost medieval method of cutting, burning or poison. If growth can not be interrupted surgically, it can be burned by radiation or poisoned by chemotherapy.

As a result, cancer treatment remains a daunting diagnosis for patients and treatment options seem limited for a disease that causes one in six deaths worldwide.

The failure to innovate in cancer treatment may lie in the very low success rate of clinical trials.

Approximately 95-98% of new anti-cancer drugs fail Phase III clinical trials, where new therapies are compared to existing treatment options.

It's a staggering statistic. No other company could survive with such an abominable success rate.

Most drugs are designed to target "mbad" cancer cells, but not the root cause: cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells, also known as tumor-initiating cells, are the only cells in the tumor that can form a new tumor.

New treatments targeting and specifically eliminating these cancer stem cells are needed to prevent the growth and spread of tumors, but for this it is necessary to further refine the target.

Our new research may have discovered such a target. We have identified and isolated cells in different cancerous growths that we call the "cell of origin".

Our experiments on cancer cells derived from a human bad tumor revealed that stem cells – representing 0.2% of the cancer cell population – exhibited special characteristics.

They generate large amounts of energy and proliferate rapidly. We believe that they look like the original cancer cell that has escaped senescence – the natural process of cellular aging and "death" that concludes a healthy cell cycle.

These would be the first cancer cells to trigger the process of uncontrolled cell multiplication and to cause tumor formation.

These cancer stem cells undergo anchorage-independent growth, also known as suspension growth, without any tissue attachment. This is how metastases occur – spreading through blood vessels and lymphatics. These features place them in the forefront as a new target for cancer treatment.

With incredible luck, these energetic cancer stem cells are color coded, which means they have a natural phosphorescent luster, making them easy to identify and target.

Now that we have found them and we know how they behave, it should be relatively simple to find drugs to target cancer stem cells.

In our new article, we have already shown that they are easily targeted by a mitochondrial inhibitor or a cell cycle inhibitor such as Ribociclib, an FDA-approved drug in the United States that would prevent their proliferation.

Ultimately, this means that if we focus on energetic cancer stem cells, we may be able to reach the target directly. Perhaps we could turn cancer into a manageable chronic disease, such as diabetes.

We think we have arrived at the beginning of a new, more successful pathway in cancer treatment. As a result, "big pharma" drug screening should actually focus on cancer stem cells and their relevant targets.

Michael P. Lisanti, professor of translational medicine at the University of Salford.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.