2008 Woodie Awards
New inhibitors offer hope for breast cancer
Issue date: 10/9/08
Zhou first tested the drugs on the CSCs in a Petri dish. She found that the three sets of drugs targeted the CSCs and reduced their ability to grow.
Next, and most importantly, she tested the new therapy in mice. She implanted the breast cancer stem cells in mice, let them grow and then gave the new drugs to the mice.
The mice that received the drugs had smaller tumors than those without the therapies. Also, if the new therapies were combined with traditional therapies, the tumors were even smaller than with each therapy by itself.
Zhou believes that this work is a step in the right direction, but she admits that there are limitations to the study. In the future, she will use fresh breast cancer stem cells taken directly from patients. This study used cells that had been growing in a Petri dish for a few years.
However, this does not diminish the results from the study. The next step for Zhou and Zhang is to "evaluate these inhibitors on cancer stem cells isolated from patients specimens," Zhou said.
Hopefully in the future, therapies such as this will save countless lives by targeting the root of the problem in cancer.
Next, and most importantly, she tested the new therapy in mice. She implanted the breast cancer stem cells in mice, let them grow and then gave the new drugs to the mice.
The mice that received the drugs had smaller tumors than those without the therapies. Also, if the new therapies were combined with traditional therapies, the tumors were even smaller than with each therapy by itself.
Zhou believes that this work is a step in the right direction, but she admits that there are limitations to the study. In the future, she will use fresh breast cancer stem cells taken directly from patients. This study used cells that had been growing in a Petri dish for a few years.
However, this does not diminish the results from the study. The next step for Zhou and Zhang is to "evaluate these inhibitors on cancer stem cells isolated from patients specimens," Zhou said.
Hopefully in the future, therapies such as this will save countless lives by targeting the root of the problem in cancer.
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