McMaster University

Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells

One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of
aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing
healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University
researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop
therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing
normal healthy cells

Mick Bhatia, scientific director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer
Research Institute in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and
his team of investigators have demonstrated – for the first time – the
difference between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells in humans.

The discovery, published in the prestigious journal Nature
Biotechnology today, could eventually help with the further
customization and targeting of cancer treatments for the individual
patient. It will immediately provide a model to discover drugs using
robotic screening for available molecules that may have untapped
potential to eradicate cancer.

"Normal stem cells and cancer stem cells are hard to tell apart, and
many have misconstrued really good stem cells for cancer stem cells
that have gone bad - we now can tell the ones masquerading as normal
stem cells from the bad, cancerous ones," said Bhatia.

"This also allows us to compare normal versus cancer stem cells from
humans in the laboratory - define the differences in terms of genes
they express and drugs they respond to. Essentially, we can now use
this to find the "magic bullet", a drug or set of drugs that kill
cancer stem cells first, and spare the normal healthy ones," he said.

"McMaster is uniquely positioned for this discovery platform, and this
was the missing ingredient - we have one of the best screening/robotic
platforms, chemical libraries and expertise in professors Eric Brown
and Gerry Wright, who have discovered molecules to combat infectious
disease. Now we can combine it all. This team now aims to kill cancer."


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This work is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the
Canadian Cancer Society; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and
the National Cancer Institute of Canada.