"We thought this was an interesting development," says Gao, "because these precancerous cells were actually stopped from becoming malignant. We are calling this process differentiation-induced cell death, a protective mechanism the body may invoke to prevent pCSCs from maturing into full-blown cancer stem cells."
It was a different story with the mice with impaired immune systems, however. In those animals, the pCSCs developed into solid tumors, developing additional mutations in different cell types as they grew and spread.
Additional experiments revealed that the piwil2 gene may exclusively regulate the process of pCSC development.
Gao says these data suggest some important characteristics of pCSCs.
"First, it appears that pCSCs require some sort of signal, or cue, from their immediate environment that directs them to become benign or malignant. Second, it seems clear that they can be detected and eliminated by a robust immune system when they are actively developing into cancer cells."
Cancer stem cell theory is still in its infancy, but Gao feels these findings, if validated by additional studies, point to a candidate population of precancerous cells that may one day be a valuable target for new drugs and treatments. "To cure cancer, we have to eliminate all potential malignant cells not just the ones within easy reach."