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Nature 435, 1169-1170 (30 June 2005) | doi:10.1038/4351169a; Published online 29 June 2005

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Cancer biology:  Summing up cancer stem cells

Brian J. P. Huntly1 & D. Gary Gilliland1

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Are current cancer drugs targeted at the wrong kinds of cells? A pioneering approach to the development of treatments uses a mathematical model to follow how different types of tumour cells respond to therapy.

In this issue, Michor and colleagues (Dynamics of chronic myeloid leukaemia)1 address the vexing problem that although many cancer drugs dramatically reduce the size of tumours, most cancers will eventually recur, often fatally. The authors model the dynamic changes in populations of cancer cells during treatment, and their data fit with the theory that there is a small population of cells — 'cancer stem cells' — that are ultimately responsible for the growth of tumours and are resistant to current therapies.

  1. Brian J. P. Huntly is in the Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2XY, UK, and D. Gary Gilliland is at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
    Email: bjph2@cam.ac.uk
    Email: ggilliland@rics.bwh.harvard.edu