Recent research has identified cancer stem cells as those specific cells which cause cancer tumors to grow. Identifying and targeting these cells may be the key to effective and long-lasting cancer treatment.
The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only a few research institutions in the United States and Canada that has made an institutional commitment to cancer stem cell research. Organized teams of U-M scientists are studying cancer stem cells in many different types of cancer – including adrenal, breast, colon, head and neck, leukemia, lung, melanoma, myeloma, pancreatic, prostate and thyroid cancers. By working together and sharing information, Cancer Center scientists hope to make progress more rapidly than would be possible for individual scientists working alone.