From The Scientist: "This is a confirmation of what a lot of people have been talking about, the hypothesis that cancer stem cells are the source of metastasis ... Although the study focused on pancreatic cancer, he noted, it could apply to many other tumors as well ... Recent research has suggested that some tumors, including breast, colon, brain, prostate, and most recently, pancreas, arise from a small subset of stem-like cells called cancer stem cells, which often are marked by the cell surface antigen CD133. These cells induce tumor formation and are often resistant to conventional therapies. Researchers assumed that some segment of these cells also drove metastasis, but this had remained unproven. ... [this] begins to put a definition on the cells responsible for metastasis." Cancer without metastasis would be much less threatening an age-related disease. If we're lucky enough to find that metastasis relies on a small, distinct population of cells, then we can expect significant progress over the next decade.

Link: http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53583/