Treatment of invasive bladder cancer in humans could evolve in order to better target the evolution of the disease in the coming years. Researchers from the University of Stanford, in the United States, conducted a study, published in the specialized journal Nature Cell Biology. The goal: to better understand the origin and evolution of malignant bladder tumors.
By analyzing mice, the scientists concluded that invasive cancer spreading to the muscle wall of the bladder develops from a single line of cells. In mice, they explain, a single stem cell would have been enough to generate copies which, in turn, colonize the tissue that covers the bladder. Cancer cells would also be very different from the original defective cell, add the researchers.
Prospects for treatment
This finding would explain why bladder cancers in humans tend to recur so often. “Even when invasive tumors are surgically removed, the defective cell line is still present and maintains a high probability of cancer progression,” says Philip Beachy, one of the study’s authors. New treatment perspectives could therefore be considered after verifying these conclusions.
