Traditional cancer treatments have only focused on the cancer cells, leaving the cancer stem cells behind. Chemotherapy will kill cancer cells, but cancer stem cells may somehow “hide” during chemo or radiation, then later they morph into actively growing cancer cells and move to other parts of the body. If even one cancer stem cell survives, you’re going to have an entire tumor reconstituted, and in a more aggressive form. So in addition to killing cancer cells, cancer treatments must target cancer stem cells to eradicate the disease before they get a chance to initiate new patterns of growth and cause even more problems. If you kill the cancer stem cells, then you eradicate (cure) the cancer.Â
Telomerase is an enzyme in cancer stem cells that keeps these cells immortal …
