Max Wicha, M.D.
Moving new cancer treatment from lab to clinic
FACT BOX
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Physicians have many ways to kill cancer. They can poison malignant cells with chemotherapy and blast them with radiation. But often the cancer returns – stronger and more aggressive than before. The reason current treatments don’t always work, according to Max Wicha, is because they don’t kill the most important cells in the tumor.
“The goal of all our existing therapies has been to kill as many cells within the tumor as possible,” says Max Wicha. “We have not been targeting the most important cells in the tumor – the cancer stem cells. If we hope to cure more cancers we will need to target and eliminate this critical type of cancer cell.”
Wicha’s lab was part of the team that discovered stem cells in breast cancer, the first described in any human solid tumor.
And he will be using his Taubman Institute funding to expand his research into cancer stem cells across different types of cancer.
“Our hope is that some of the treatments we develop for one type of tumor like breast cancer may also work in targeting the cancer stem cells in other types of tumors, says Wicha, “and so we actually may make great progress in treating a wide variety of cancers.
We have the opportunity to be the world leader in this emerging area of cancer research. The Taubman Scholars support will enable us to extend that work at a much more rapid pace, bringing these discoveries in cancer stem cells into the clinic much more rapidly.
Research Findings:
