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Stem cells

Anatomy of an ovarian cancer

Nature volume 495, pages 183–184 (2013)Cite this article

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Whether ovarian cancer originates in the ovary or the surrounding tissues is a focus of debate. Work in mice now shows that stem cells that replenish the ovarian surface epithelium can be the initiators of this cancer. See Letter p.241

Stem cells in adult tissues are thought to be the cells of origin of cancers: these cells are long-lived, can self-renew and are susceptible to accumulating the minimal number of mutations that are necessary for carcinogenesis1. But the putative stem-cell population that gives rise to ovarian cancers has remained elusive. On page 241 of this issue, Flesken-Nikitin et al.2 identify such cells in miceFootnote 1.

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Figure 1: Stem cells at the border between organs.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion2 were published online on 6 March 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. James D. Brenton and John Stingl are at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge, Li Ka Shing Centre, Cambridge CB2 0RE, UK.,

    James D. Brenton & John Stingl

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  1. James D. Brenton
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  2. John Stingl
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Correspondence to James D. Brenton.

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Brenton, J., Stingl, J. Anatomy of an ovarian cancer. Nature 495, 183–184 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11962

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