Researchers at the University of Michigan have for the first time identified a stem cell marker on head and neck tumours, which can indicate which cells are capable of fuelling the cancer’s growth.

Researchers believe their finding may lead to the development of drugs to target and kill cancer stem cells, which escape the attack of current treatments for the disease, and replicate to drive tumour growth.

The researchers however believe that the current finding in head and neck tumours does not pinpoint the exact stem cells, as the percent of cells within a tumour expressing CD44 varied from one sample to the next, with one sample composed of as high as 40 percent of these cells.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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