Editor's Summary

4 January 2007

Cancer stem cells

Two papers in this issue report the identification of a specific type of colon cancer cell that initiates tumour growth in mice. This lends support to the theory that only a few cells within a tumour, the cancer stem cells, are responsible for tumour formation and maintenance. The finding highlights the importance of finding therapeutics to target cancer stem cells.

Letter: A human colon cancer cell capable of initiating tumour growth in immunodeficient mice

Catherine A. O'Brien, Aaron Pollett, Steven Gallinger & John E. Dick

doi:10.1038/nature05372

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (491K) | Supplementary information

Letter: Identification and expansion of human colon-cancer-initiating cells

Lucia Ricci-Vitiani, Dario G. Lombardi, Emanuela Pilozzi, Mauro Biffoni, Matilde Todaro, Cesare Peschle & Ruggero De Maria

doi:10.1038/nature05384

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,088K) | Supplementary information