Keisuke Ito, Rosa Bernardi, Alessandro Morotti, Sahoko Matsuoka, Giuseppe Saglio, Yasuo Ikeda, Jacalyn Rosenblatt, David E Avigan, Julie Teruya-Feldstein, Pier Paolo Pandolfi
The existence of a small population of 'cancer-initiating cells' responsible for tumour maintenance has been firmly demonstrated in leukaemia. This concept is currently being tested in solid tumours. Leukaemia-initiating cells, particularly those that are in a quiescent state, are thought to be resistant to chemotherapy and targeted therapies, resulting in disease relapse. Chronic myeloid leukaemia is a paradigmatic haematopoietic stem cell disease in which the leukaemia-initiating-cell pool is not eradicated by current therapy, leading to disease relapse on drug discontinuation...
June 19, 2008: Nature