Brain Stem Cell Tumor Research

Brain Stem Cell Tumor Research

Researchers at NIH (from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes divisions) have identified a better line of cells for cancer research than those normally used. The tumor stem cells are derived from glioblastoma brain tumors.

According to the press release, the cancer cells cultured from cancer tumors are often very different from the tumors. (This, obviously, means that what works in the culture might not work in the tumor.) However, glioblastoma tumor stem cells “accurately reflect the biological mechanisms and genetic characteristics of the parent tumor.” When they were injected into mice with compromised immune systems, the mice developed brain tumors. The researchers also found that growing stem cell tumors in a serum-free culture was what allowed the cells to retain the characteristics of the parent tumor. Adding blood serum to the culture caused the cells to differentiate and eventually to have characteristics that match the cells cultured historically for research over the last twenty years but not matching the actual tumor cells.

I have some questions about this. It’s not clear to me from the press release if this is an issue for cancer cells other than neural cells. (Maybe it’s not known yet.) If other cells can grow in a serum and maintain the characteristics of the tumor, then this is a fairly specialized area of cancer research. If, however, it turns out that other cultured cancer lines are different from the tumors themselves, then this has really wide-reaching implications for cancer research.

I’m also curious about the fact that the human blood-serum causes the cells to differentiate. Could this be used in trying to get normal neural stem cells to differentiate and grow? Do non-cancerous stem cells act the same way as tumor stem cells?

Finally, cancer research is showing that for many forms of cancer, the disease is caused by stem cells gone wrong, and that the treatments which target the tumor do not target the stem cells—this is one of the things that leads to re-occurrence of the cancer. It seems like this research should have some bearing on that issue as well. Are glioblastomas much more like their stem cells than other forms of cancer? Or are there still important differences between the tumor and the cells which give rise to the tumor that would need to be addressed in treatment of glioblastomas?