The future of cancer therapy may lie in the very stem cells that cause cancer in the first place. Researchers at the Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology are studying how stem cells that cause cancer come out of dormancy and become active. If they can keep the cells dormant, they can ultimately prevent cancer from forming.

According to the research team, current cancer therapies (like chemotherapy) fail because chemo doesn’t kill dormant cells, only actively proliferating cells. These stem cells one day "wake up" and become cancer again. The findings could ultimately lead to therapies that prevent cancer from coming back. Additional information on the research, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, can be found in the link below.

http://news.tamhsc.edu/?post=can-stem-cells-cause-and-cure-cancer