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(Best Syndication News) In an effort that would have made Thomas Edison envious, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tested 16,000 chemicals to find one that would kill cancer stem cells. This is important because some conventional chemotherapy treatments are unable to kill cancer stem cells that reside in tumors.

Out of the 16,000 natural and commercial chemical compounds the researchers found 32 that worked. Out of those they found one “clear winner” that is readily available. That compound is salinomycin, an antibiotic that disturbs the cell potassium balance. .

According to research published in the August 13th 2009 issue of the journal Cell it is uncertain how it works or if it will ever be available as a treatment, but scientists will certainly use it as a tool for manipulating cancer stem cell numbers and for observing the effects on cancer's spread and progression.

In this study the team of scientists manipulated cultured breast cancer cells to greatly enrich those with the stem-like properties. This made them more resistant to standard drugs and treatments.

This could be a salient moment in cancer research. "It wasn't clear it would be possible to find compounds that selectively kill cancer stem cells," said Piyush Gupta of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Broad Institute. "We've shown it can be done."

Currently therapies are designed to treat specific alterations present within tumors. The next revolution in cancer treatment may involve agents that target specific states of cancer cell differentiation. The treatment of cancer will likely be more individualized in the future.

Some cancers seem to come back even after therapy. "Many therapies kill the bulk of a tumor only to see it regrow," says Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and an author of the Cell paper. "This raises the prospect of new kinds of anti-cancer therapies."

"Evidence is accumulating rapidly that cancer stem cells are responsible for the aggressive powers of many tumors," says Robert Weinberg, a member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and one of the authors of the study. "The ability to generate such cells in the laboratory, together with the powerful techniques available at the Broad Institute, made it possible to identify this chemical. There surely will be dozens of others with similar properties found over the next several years."

By Jeffrey Workman

A large invasive ductal carcinoma in a mastectomy specimen. External (gross) appearance of a mastectomy specimen containing a very large invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.

Source: Emmanuelm - This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.