One of the areas in which SWCRF is a leader is investigation of cancer stem cells. The potential of this approach was highlighted in the Sept 13-19, 2008 issue of The Economist, whose cover story was “Cancer and stem cells: The connection that could lead to a cure.” It discusses the pioneering research of both Dr. Craig Jordan, whose work we fund, and Dr. Max Wicha, who is a member of the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.

The Foundation began funding research on cancer stem cells in the mid-1990s. The National Cancer Institute held its first conference on the subject in 2007.

The article itself is headlined “The root of all evil? Cancer may be caused by stem cells gone bad. If that proves to be correct, it should revolutionise treatment”. After talking about the research detective work that teased out the existence of cancer stem cells and how they function, the article highlights research on potential drugs that can fight them.

Attacking Notch [described as “the stem-cell self-renewal gene”] is a high-risk approach, because this gene is used by healthy stem cells as well as cancerous ones; healthy organs as well as tumours could be damaged. Some researchers are therefore taking a different tack and looking for drugs that hit only the unhealthy stem cells. Craig Jordan, a biologist at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, in New York state, is one such. He has discovered that a chemical called parthenolide, found in feverfew, a medicinal plant, kills AML [acute myeloid leukemia] stem cells. Normal stem cells, however, seem to be able to tolerate the drug without difficulty. The reason is that the leukaemia cells are reliant on a biochemical pathway that parthenolide blocks, whereas normal stem cells are not. If all goes well, a trial to test the safety of a modified form of parthenolide will start in a few months.

The Foundation is supporting further work with Dr. Jordan to find additional compounds that can attack cancer stem cells without harming normal cells. The Foundation is also supporting Dr. Jordan’s collaboration with Dr. Settleman (another scientist we fund) to identify additional cancers which are sensitive to parthenolide. Jordan’s earlier work was highlighted in the January 2008 E-bulletin.
http://waxmancancer.org/newsletter/jan2008/index.htm

This Foundation newsletter includes a profile of Dr. Wicha and an article on Dr. Neel’s work on breast cancer stem cells.
http://www.waxmancancer.org/pdf/newsletter_sp_06.pdf