A new compound called salinomycin has shown promise in attacking cancer producing stem cells.
Cancer stem cells are important because they appear to fuel the growth of several types of cancers.
Salinomycin reduced the number of cancer stem cells 100 times more than a Taxol, a common chemotherapy medicine.
“It’s exactly the opposite of standard treatment,” said Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. “While chemotherapy kills the bulk of cells in a tumor and leaves the cancer stem cells behind, this new treatment does the opposite -- it actually targets and kills the cancer stem cells.”
Researchers are beginning animal tests to assess the viability of developing drug treatments for humans.
Source: Bloomberg
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