Stem cells are master cells, the cells that all cells come from, before they become specialized cells that go on to replicate themselves into cells with similar properties. Researchers worldwide are attempting to isolate and characterize cancer stem cells. Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Stem Cell Research Program researchers are making discoveries into the origin and behavior of cancer stem cells producing new cancer cells dividing uncontrollably, promoting new growth and metastasis of new tumors.

Discovering the genetic mutations that cause cancer stem cells to behave abnormally may allow for the development of therapies to prevent the out-of-control replication by stopping the process at its cancer stem cell source. The Cancer Stem Cell Research Program scientists have discovered and isolated human leukemia and human breast cancer stem cells, and are now close to isolating cancer stem cells for brain cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma and bladder cancer. Stem cell research is so new, it would be difficult to predict, at this point in time, how much of a curative factor therapies resulting from stem cell research will have on cancers. However, it is an exciting field of study to watch, with the promise of illuminating a complex understanding into the heart of how cancer cells behave, grow, and survive, by identifying and understanding cancer stem cells, the master cells of cancer.