The promise of cancer stem cell research has reached a critical
point and the University of Rochester Medical Center is
establishing itself as a leader in the field by creating a
Cancer Stem Cell Research Program. The Medical Center's top
scientists are collaborating to discover cures for cancer by
closely examining the "master cells" of this deadly disease.
This program is one of only three formal programs in the United
States. The two others are at Harvard and Stanford universities.
This is a new avenue for scientists to pursue in an effort to
find the underlying causes of cancer. "Oncologists have long
treated cancer by attacking the tumors, but in many cases
without getting at the root of the disease the cancer stem cells
- which tend to be drug resistant and a potential cause of
relapse," said Craig Jordan, Ph.D., director of Translational
Research for Hematologic Malignancies at the James P. Wilmot
Cancer Center and associate professor of Medicine and Biomedical
Genetics. Jordan and colleagues, Monica G