CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Cancer researchers in Massachusetts reported Thursday they have found a way to screen for chemicals that kill cancer stem cells.
In a report in Cell, members of a team from the Broad Institute said they screened 16,000 chemicals and found 32 that specifically attack cancer stem cells, The New York Times reported. The Broad Institute is a joint project of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The chemicals screened included all known anti-cancer drugs. Only one of those was identified by the screening as effective against stem cells.
Many cancer scientists believe tumors can be almost eliminated but recur if the stem cells remain.
"If we make a drug that kills 99.9 percent of the cells in a tumor but fails to kill the 0.1 percent, that is the real problem," said Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute. "It's a Pyrrhic victory."
Dr. Piyush Gupta, the head of the research team, said a combination of anti-cancer drugs and those targeting stem cells could allow lower-dose chemotherapy.
