Melanoma is one of the most aggressive cancers known. Now better treatments may be on the horizon, thanks to the discovery of cancer stem cells that both trigger the initial tumour and drive its later growth.
An idea gaining popularity is that rogue stem cells, which resist treatments that kill most cancer cells, are what make some tumours especially dangerous and prone to recurrence (New Scientist, 25 November 2006, p 48). Yet so far these cells have been identified in only a few types of cancer.
Now a team led by Markus Frank of Harvard Medical School in Boston…
