Immune Cells Found to Fuel Colon Cancer Stem Cells

May 9, 2014

(Medical Xpress) – A subset of immune cells directly target colon cancers, rather than the immune system, giving the cells the aggressive properties of cancer stem cells. So finds a new study that is an international collaboration among researchers from the United States, China and Poland. “If you want to control cancer stem cells through new therapies, then you need to understand what controls the cancer stem cells,” says senior study author Weiping Zou, M.D., Ph.D., Charles B. de Nancrede Professor of surgery, immunology and biology at the University of Michigan Medical School.