Triggering cancer cells to become normal cells – how stem cell therapies can provide new ways to stop tumors from spreading or growing back

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Huanhuan Joyce Chen, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Abhimanyu Thakur, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

(THE CONVERSATION) How cells become cancerous is a process researchers are still trying to fully understand. Generally, normal cells grow and multiply through controlled cell division, where old and damaged cells are replaced after they die by new cells. Sometimes this process stops working, leading cells to start growing uncontrollably and develop into a tumor.

Traditionally, cancer treatments like chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation and surgery focus on killing cancer cells. Another type of treatment using stem cells called differentiation therapy, however, focuses on persuading cancer cells to become normal cells.

We areresearchers who study how stem cells, or immature cells that can develop into different types of cells, behave in states of health and disease. We believe that stem cells can provide potential treatments for cancer of all types in...