Thread: Cancer/ stem cells

Hi,

In a lecture recently, we were told that in cancer 'stem cells fail to self-renew' and 'therefore grow uncontrollably'. I am confused as to why this is the case; I would have expected that in cancer, the converse is true. I.e. stem cells self-renew excessively, thereby increasing the overall cell number and also the proportion of undifferentiated cells.

Can anybody please shed any light on this?

Thanks,

Tridimity :?

Self-renewal in stem cells is their capacity to retain an undifferentiated state after cell division, so certainly this statement seems to be self-contradictory as self-renewal means proliferation of undifferentiated cells... What sort of cancer was the lecturer talking about and are you sure that your notes are accurate? Perhaps the lecturer meant that self-regulation or differentiation are impacted?

Dear Biologista,
It was in the first lecture of a whole course on cancer and related not to any specific cancer, but i suppose was intended to represent a generic feature of cancers... My notes may not be accurate, i recorded the lecture and posted the same question on the course's discussion board... no reply there yet...

HEY-HO

Thanks,

Tridimity :wink: