ESMO 2017 | How can mutations in stem cells be treated?

Andreas Trumpp, PhD, from the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany, discusses treating cancerous mutations in stem cells at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 in Madrid, Spain. There has been a big advance in sequencing recently, that has been able to demonstrate the origin of the cancer. It has been found that the original mutation occurs in a stem cell, which, while not cancerous by itself, that mutation will remain in the individual, significantly increasing the risk of developing cancer. Stem cells are also more likely to resistant to treatment, so therapies are being developed to overcome this, and to target specifically mutated stem cells, and not healthy ones.