Bladder cancer stem cell discovered

Washington, Aug 4 (ANI): Stanford's School of Medicine researchers have identified the first human bladder cancer stem cell.

"This is first time we've found this 'don't eat me signal' in a stem cell of a solid cancer," said Irving Weissman, MD, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research at the medical school.

"We're now moving as fast as we can to look at other tumors to see if this is a universal strategy of all or most cancer stem cells," the expert added.

If so, the signal may be a valuable therapeutic target for many types of cancers.

Weissman, who directs Stanford's Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Institute, is the senior author of the work, which will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Aug. 3. (ANI)