What are cancer stem cells ? 

Tumours have within their microenvironment a wide variety of cells and some of these are self-renewing, parent-like cells known as cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are the cells believed to be responsible for treatment failure, progression, metastasis and recurrence many months or even years after a patient experiences remission¹. Simply type the words ‘cancer stem cells’ into PubMed and you will see over 37, 000 results for the past 5 years alone. 

Does standard cancer treatment kill cancer stem cells?

Standard cancer therapies are usually effective at targeting the regular cancer cells in a tumour mass or in the blood, however, they are not effective against cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells “display a high plasticity, which changes their phenotypic and functional appearance. Such changes are actually induced by chemo- and radio-therapeutics²."  Dormancy and the ability to escape detection by the immune are features of many cancer stem cells. Sadly, it makes things difficult for us, because as standard  of care patients, we are offered conventional cancer treatments that support the mutation and activity of cancer stem cells.

Avoiding relapse after cancer treatment.

Cancer stem cells have the capacity to mutate during treatment and post treatment can restore the tumor mass with an even more aggressive cancer cell type. A truly successful cancer therapy requires that both the tumor cells and the cancer stem cells be eliminated. The ability to target both cell types is at the forefront of cancer treatment research worldwide today.³

The cancer stem cell challenge in a nutshell.

There is an increased risk of having a more aggressive cancer stem cell population post-treatment. Cancer stem cells are not detectable by standard imaging or most  biomarkers and are currently not being addressed by standard of care. It is simply not enough to eliminate the tumour cells. For long-term survival, cancer stem cells must also be eliminated. Achieving this could potentially eliminate the entire cancer cell population, greatly reducing the chances of recurrence, metastasis and death.   

Most researched cancer stem cells targets.

The capacity for cancer stem cells to create and restore tumor mass, drive metastasis, trigger treatment relapse and resistance to conventional therapies has been well studied and attributed to the following factors^4. 1) Pluripotent transcription factors, such as OCT4, Sox2, Nanog, KLF4, and MYC 2) Activation of inter-signalling pathways such as Wnt, NF-κB (nuclear factor-κB), Notch, Hedgehog, JAK-STAT (Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription), PI3K/AKT/mTOR (phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin), TGF (transforming growth factor)/SMAD, and PPAR. 3) Extracellular factors, such as vascular niches, hypoxia, tumor-associated macrophages, cancer-associated fibroblasts, cancer-associated mesenchymal stem cells, extracellular matrix, and exosomes.

Meanwhile, what can I do?

So far I have read the research being presented on the safe and accessible ‘non-patentable’ natural compounds that have the capacity to regulate and inhibit the above mentioned cancer stem cell pathways + hypoxia (table 1). I also looked into each compound's potential to support the work of standard of care chemotherapies and radiation without harming my healthy cells. (table 2). Each day I search the scientific journals for the research pertaining to ‘cancer stem cell pathways, hypoxia, chemotherapy resistance, radio-therapy resistance and the names of the natural compound presented in a bioavailable form. I use the MCS formulas range as my guide to trusted, accessible, pure, high strength and bioavailable anti-cancer compounds. See tables below.