Growth Factor Signaling in Stem cells and Cancer

Current research aims to understand the signaling pathways that control normal ASCs and how perturbation of such pathways allows such cells to escape regulatory control * resulting in a rouge cancer stem cell and ultimately cancer.   Such information is deemed critical to finding effective treatments that target the actual defective pathways that contribute to cancer.  Indeed, in many cancer types ‑ both familial and sporadic ‑ pathways such as the Wnt, IGF and TGF pathways are constitutively active and have been proven to be critical for both ASC survival and cancer initiation or maintenance ‑ lending credence for targeted (“biologically based”) therapies aimed at these signaling pathways in cancer stem cells.  Research efforts include basic and translational (“bench‑to‑bedside”) studies together with clinical trials with compounds that specifically inhibit these pathways unique to the cancer stem cell to ultimately find effective cures for cancer.