Overlapping Cancer, Stem Cell Research
From UCSF Today, an introduction to the way in which cancer research and stem cell research now overlap. "While several researchers are investigating the likelihood that some tumors get their stem cell characteristics from stem cells themselves, others are looking into the possibility that cancer stem cells might acquire their characteristics another way. Scientists are investigating whether progenitor or even fully differentiated cells somehow shirk assigned roles, de-differentiate and acquire stem-cell-like potency en route to becoming cancerous." We can hope that overlapping biochemistry at the cellular level becomes the key to faster progress in these very complex fields - that the cancer research establishment will contribute as much to the advance of stem cell based regenerative medicine (and knowledge of aging) as it does to defeating cancer ... and vice versa.
Link: http://pub.ucsf.edu/today/cache/feature/200608117.html