We believe that cancers are fueled by a small percentage of stem in breast cancer. ... The cure for cancer will be about getting rid of these stem cells. Max S. Wicha Cancer Breakthroughs 1990 Researchers discover two of the genes responsible for inherited susceptibility for breast cancer. 1992 Congress passes the Mammography Quality Standards Act. Taxol (paclitaxel) is approved as secondline therapy for advanced breast cancer. 1994 1996 The American Cancer guidelines on diet, nutrition and cancer that onethird of all cancer deaths can be prevented through healthy eating and physical activity. The overall downturn in cancer mortality is documented. Overall cancer death rates fell 2.4 percent between 1991 and 1995. 1997 May 2010 deltaskymag.com Instead of looking at the cancer tumors, Polyak looks at the surrounding duct cells. Those cells have defects in some people. Polyak refers to these damaged cells as being or Her work happens in her research lab, where she breaks the tissues down into single cells. She then isolates cells and their chromosomes and gene expression. work could lead to a breakthrough in understanding breast cancer and potential treatments. something is seen on a mammogram, women have she says. is radiation or tamoxifen. What we know is which women are likely to have the cancers spread. We have been treating everyone as if the cancer will progress, but we may in fact be giving them unnecessary The radiation treatment may create an environment that is more cancer-fiendly, Polyak says. Cancer cells may spread as a result of treatments that cause Cancer researchers are increasingly aware that in the body is a factor in whether cancers grow or not. always creates in the she says. want to cause even as we are trying to do research is years away fom being validated or leading to new treatments. However, she hopes it will someday help researchers tailor cancer treatments in more personalized ways. The Secret of Stem Cells Dr. Max S. Wicha Director, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center // Ann Arbor, Michigan he classic view had been that cancer cells were all the same; they were all equally says Max S. Wicha, a leader in cancer stem cell research. thought all we had to do was kill all of the cancer cells and the cancer would research reveals that cancer stem cells may be responsible for cancers spreading and becoming deadly. believe that cancers are fueled by a small percentage of stem in breast he says. is a very model of cancer than what we had before. The cure for cancer will be about getting rid of these stem research focuses on breast cancer stem cells. He is combining chemotherapy with a drug that inhibits the pathways cancer stem cells use to travel and multiply. In drug trials with mice that have breast cancer, the mice actually showed an increase in cancer stem cells afer chemotherapy. However, when coupled with the pathway-inhibiting drug, the mice lived longer. The treatment is now in its human clinical trials. being tested on women with advanced breast cancer at Baylor University and at the DanaFarber Cancer Institute in Boston. Although research focuses on breast cancer, it could be applicable to many cancers, including colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. cancers are they do share characteristics, so the treatments may work for a range of he says. For example, may be that can be one of the most curable and one of the most deadly be made up of mostly all stem cells, not just the small percentages we see in other If researchers determine which cancer stem cells are the most malignant and what regulates them, traditional as double mastectomies and intense give way to less invasive, more targeted and more therapies.