Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Converging histories, reconsidered potentialities: The stem cell and cancer

  • Original Article
  • Published:
BioSocieties Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the last 15 years, stem cell biology has moved to the forefront of contemporary biomedicine. The recent rise to prominence of this distinctive category of cells rests on hopes of harnessing their unique proliferative powers to create novel cell therapies for a range of devastating and presently incurable diseases. This vision, articulated in the new and still emerging therapeutic paradigm of regenerative medicine has, since the mid-1990s, served as an animating force for stem cell research. Often forgotten in current discussions of stem cell innovation is an earlier chapter in stem cell-based therapy, that of bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Used as an adjunct to radio- and/or chemotherapy for cancer, the clinical pedigree of BMT stretches back to the late 1950s. Its therapeutic utility rests on the regenerative powers of the blood stem cell understood to be resident in the bone marrow. Common to BMT and current formulations of stem cells as regenerative therapies is an understanding of stem cells as a biological force for good. However, this may not be the whole story: stem cells may have a ‘dark side’ – one in which they may have a role in the pathogenesis of some forms of cancer. Today, this unsettling possibility finds form in the concept of the cancer stem cell (CSC). This posits a pathological counterpart to the ‘normal’ stem cell: in this model, the leukaemia-causing lesion is resident within an aberrant stem cell – the cancer stem cell – which gives rise to malignant tissue that is a ‘caricature’ of its normal counterpart. Here, in the movement from the normal to the pathological, the cardinal properties of the stem cell become a deadly force: the twin powers of self-renewal and proliferation serving to initiate, drive and sustain tumour growth. Seemingly, the more that is known about stem cells the less certain we are about their capabilities and their potential(s). In an era entranced by the idea of cellular therapies, the shadow cast by the cancer stem cell serves as a signal for caution in the future clinical use of stem cells. Focusing on the leukaemias, this article considers how the histories of BMT and the CSC each contain lessons for the future and emphasizes how our understanding of contemporary science is enriched by an appreciation of its past.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Interview with stem cell biologist, 2005.

  2. The origin of the cancer stem cell has been extensively theorized: it can be either the ‘normal’ stem cell resident within a tissue, or a progenitor cell that has acquired the ability for self-renewal, thereby conferring upon it the properties of a stem cell. The question as to which of these pathways leads to the cancer stem cell remains a highly charged debate.

  3. Interview with cancer stem cell researcher, 2007.

  4. For example, in the United Kingdom in 2004 there were 284 560 diagnoses of cancer, 7000 of which were for leukaemia, of which in turn, c. 1500 were in children. The most common forms of cancer were: breast (16 per cent); lung (13 per cent); bowel (13 per cent) and prostate (12 per cent). The overall mortality rate was c. 50 per cent.

  5. In addition, the advent of the nuclear reactor offered a new supply of radioisotopes, including radiophosphorus, which interwar research had suggested might be useful against leukaemia – hopes that were not, in fact, realized.

  6. The term ‘total’ care was coined to capture the growing array of different treatments embedded within radiochemotherapeutic regimens for leukaemia – including management of the side-effects of each element within the treatment protocol.

  7. It is important to note, too, that in the late 1960s, Robert Good and colleagues pioneered the use of BMT in the treatment of various congenital immune deficient conditions, such as Severe Combined Immune Deficiency.

  8. By the late 1980s, eight million people worldwide were registered with bone marrow donor registries such as the US National Marrow Donor Program established in 1984.

  9. The GvL effect has been tremendously important in the continued and widened use of BMT where it constitutes a highly effective form of immunotherapy, serving as a powerful means to eradicate leukaemic cells not eradicated by radiation and/or chemotherapy.

  10. The work of Furth and Kahn in 1937 had shown in the mouse that one leukaemic cell was sufficient to re-establish the disease: eradication of all leukaemic cells became a goal of treatment – and the failure to achieve this was theorized to be the basis for relapse.

  11. Advances on the marrow donation side also served to facilitate the use of BMT. For example, the advent of cytokine mobilization techniques rendered donation a much less physiologically demanding procedure. Cytokines act to mobilize stem cells out of the bone marrow and into the peripheral (circulating) blood enabling blood stem cells to be harvested by apheresis – a procedure similar to collecting blood.

  12. In the United Kingdom, the Paterson Research Laboratories of the Christie Cancer Hospital in Manchester became in the 1970s a leading centre for blood stem cell research through the work of Ray Schofield, Michael Dexter and Laszlo Lajtha. In this period, the work of Ray Bradley and Don Metcalf in Australia, and of the van Bekkum group in the Netherlands was also formative for the field.

  13. This cell cannot be visualized by available techniques: it is undifferentiated, resembles many other cells found within the blood and does not readily ‘take up’ dyes used in cytological staining. For all the sophisticated techniques of molecular biology, the blood stem cell continues to elude those searching for it and its identity continues to be the subject of intense debate. Recently, one turn in this debate has seen the existence of the blood stem cell called into question, as some, including Dov Zipori, are posing the question as to whether ‘stem-ness’ is an ‘entity’ or ‘state’.

  14. Influential figures in blood research – Ehrlich, Pappenheim, Maximow and Naegeli – all advanced competing theories about the nature and functions of such a cell.

  15. Radioisotope tracer techniques using artificial radioisotopes newly available from the nuclear reactor, such as tritiated thymidine and different isotopes of iron, were also very important for the analysis of blood cells and the process of blood formation.

  16. In the adult mouse when bone marrow function is impaired, for example, if it is damaged by radiation, the spleen serves as the site of de novo blood formation to ensure the ongoing replenishment/supply of mature blood cells and the recovery of the blood system.

  17. Since this assay visualizes the proliferative effects of the blood stem cell, that is, the spleen colonies – it is regarded as ‘indirect’: the existence and number of blood stem cells is inferred.

  18. This knowledge has been significant for clinical practice; for example, a genetic disposition to AML and CML renders inappropriate the use of autologous BMT in patients harbouring this genetic signature – because of the danger of re-introducing leukaemic cells. Such considerations have implications, too, for the use of umbilical cord blood.

  19. This system uses non-obese diabetic/severe combined immuno-deficient mice, abbreviated to the NOD/SCID in vivo repopulation assay.

  20. The question as to whether in AML (and CML) the stem cell harbouring the leukaemogenic lesion is the ‘normal’ blood stem cell or a cell that has acquired stem cell properties remains unresolved, a circumstance linked to the broader problem of identifying the blood stem cell. As with the ‘normal’ human blood stem cell, the cancer stem cell in leukaemia cannot be apprehended in the laboratory.

  21. Interview with CSC researcher, December 2007.

  22. Interview with CSC researcher, December 2007.

  23. In the absence of ‘curative’ treatments in the conventional sense, surrogate or proxy markers of ‘cure’ have gained currency, for example: ‘curative’ as defined in terms of 5-year, disease-free survival. In patient cohort studies conducted over extended periods of time, statistical methods such as Kaplan–Meier plots are used to determine and define ‘curative’ therapies.

  24. All data were taken from the US National Cancer Institute website, accessed 29 July 2009.

References

  • Al-Hajj, M., Wicha, M.S., Benito-Hernandez, A., Morrison, S.J. and Clarke, M.F. (2003) Prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences America 100: 3983–3988.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, P.W. (2002) From teratocarcinomas to embryonal stem cells. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B/357: 405–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, W.H., Corp, M.J., Loutit, J.F. and Neal, F.E. (1956) Treatment of murine leukaemia with X-rays and homologous bone marrow. British Medical Journal 2 (4993): 626–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beardsley, T. (1994) A war not won. Scientific American 270: 130–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A.J., McCulloch, E.A. and Till, J.E. (1963) Cytological demonstration of the clonal nature of spleen colonies derived from transplanted mouse marrow cells. Nature 197: 452–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjerkvig, R., Tysnes, B.B., Aboody, K.S., Najbauer, J. and Terzis, A.J.A. (2005) The origin of the cancer stem cell: Current controversies and new insights. Nature Reviews Cancer 5: 899–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodley Scott, R. (1958) Leukaemia. Ronald Bodley Scott Collection, PP/RBS/C41, Folder Unpublished papers, 1958–1960, Wellcome Trust Archives, London, UK.

  • Bonnet, D. and Dick, J.E. (1997) Human AML is organized as a hierarchy that originates from a primitive hematopoietic cell. Nature Medicine 3: 730–737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bortin, M.M. (1970) A compendium of reported human BMT. Transplantation 9: 571–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bortin, M.M. et al (1992) Changing trends in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for leukemia in the 1980s. Journal of the American Medical Association 268: 607–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, T.R. and Metcalf, D. (1966) The growth of mouse bone marrow cells in vitro. Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science 44: 287–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brent, L. (1997) A History of Transplantation Immunology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, W.R. and Van der Gaag, H. (1963) A quantitative assay for the number of murine lymphoma cells capable of proliferation in vivo. Nature 199: 79–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burchenal, J.H. (1954) The management of leukemia. Cancer Research 14: 606–624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, J. (1975) The cancer problem. Scientific American 233: 64–72, 68–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Civin, C., Strauss, L., Brovall, C., Fackler, M., Schwartz, J. and Shaper, J. (1984) Antigenic analysis of hematopoiesis: III. A hematopoietic progenitor cell surface antigen defined by a monoclonal antibody raised against KG-1a cells. Journal of Immunology 133: 157–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, M.F. et al (2006) Cancer stem cells – Perspectives on current status and future directions: AARC Workshop on cancer stem cells. Cancer Research 66: 9339–9344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarkson, B.D. (1969) Review of recent studies of cellular proliferation in acute leukemia. National Cancer Institute Monographs 30: 81–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarkson, B.D. and Fried, J. (1971) Changing concepts of treatment in acute leukemia. Medical Clinics of North America 55: 561–600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, M. (2009) Regenerative pathologies: Stem cells, teratomas and theories of cancer. Medicine Studies 1: 55–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dameshek, W. (1946) Chemotherapy of leukaemia and related diseases. Blood 1 (5): 446–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dameshek, W. (1947) Is leukemia increasing? Blood 2: 101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damjanov, I. and Solter, D. (1974) Experimental teratoma. Current Topics in Pathology 59: 69–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dexter, T.M. and Lajtha, L.G. (1974) Proliferation of haematopoietic stem cells in vitro. British Journal of Haematology 28 (4): 525–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dick, J.E. (2003a) Self-renewal writ in the blood. Nature 423: 231–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dick, J.E. (2003b) Breast cancer stem cells revealed. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (7): 3547–3549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dick, J.E. (2008) Stem cell concepts renew cancer research. Blood 112 (13): 4793–4807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Druker, B.J. (2008) Translation of the Philadelphia chromosome into therapy for CML. Blood 112 (13): 4808–4817.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrebee, J.W. and Merrill, J.P. (1957) Spare parts: A review with a look forward. Surgery 41: 503–507.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fialkow, P.J., Gartler, S.M. and Yoshida, A. (1967) Clonal origin of CML in man. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 58: 1468–1471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fialkow, P.J., Jacobson, R.J. and Papayannopoulou, T. (1977) Chronic myelogenous leukemia: Clonal origin in a stem cell common to the granulocyte, erythrocyte, platelet and monocyte/macrophage. American Journal of Medicine 63: 125–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, J.H., Wu, A.M., Till, J., McCulloch, E. and Siminovitch, L. (1967) The cellular composition of hematopoietic spleen colonies. Journal of Cell Physiology 69: 65–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frimberger, A.E. et al (2001) The fleet feet of the haematopoietic stem cells: Rapid motility, interaction and proteopodia. British Journal of Haematology 112: 644–655.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furth, J. and Kahn, M.C. (1937) The transmission of leukaemia in mice with a single cell. American Journal of Cancer 31: 276.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavosto, F. (1970) The proliferative kinetics of the acute leukaemias in relation to their treatment. Revue européene d'études cliniques et biologiques 15: 1042–1047.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland, D.G., Jordan, C.T. and Felix, C.A. (2004) The molecular basis of leukemia. Hematology 1: 80–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greaves, M.F. (1982) Target cells, cellular phenotypes and lineage fidelity in human leukaemia. Journal of Cell Physiology, (supp) 1: 113–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamburger, A.W. and Salmon, S.E. (1977) Primary bioassay of human tumor cells. Science 197: 461–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heineke, H. (1903) Uber die Einwirkung der Röntergenstrahlen auf Tiere. Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift 50: 2090–2092.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzenberg, L.A., Sweet, R.G. and Herzenberg, L.A. (1976) Fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Scientific American 234: 108–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, R.P. (2006) Identifying cancer stem cells in solid tumors: Case not proven. Cancer Research 66 (4): 1891–1896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hope, K.J., Jin, L. and Dick, J.E. (2003) Human acute myeloid leukemias. Archives of Medical Research 34: 507–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, M.M. (2004) Uses and growth of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In: K.G. Blume, S.J. Forman and F.R. Appelbaum (eds.) Thomas’ Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntly, B.J.P. and Gilliland, D.G. (2005) Leukemia stem cells and the evolution of cancer-stem-cell research. Nature Reviews Cancer 5: 311–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamel-Reid, S. and Dick, J.E. (1988) Engraftment of immune-deficient mice with human hematopoietic stem cells. Science 242: 1706–1709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keating, P. and Cambrosio, A. (2002) From screening to clinical research: The cure of leukemia and the early development of the co-operative oncology groups, 1955–1966. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 76: 299–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Killman, S.A., Cronkite, E.P., Robertson, J.S., Fliedner, T.M. and Bond, V.P. (1963) Estimation of phases of the life cycle of leukemia cells from labeling in human beings in vivo with tritiated thymidine. Laboratory Investigation 12: 671–684.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koler, R.D., Seaman, A.J. and Osgood, E.E. (1956) Continuous Theory of Acute Leukemias – Comparison of Therapeutic Agents, 6th International Congress of the International Society of Hematology. New York: Grune and Stratton.

  • Kraft, A. (2009) Manhattan transfer: Lethal radiation, bone marrow transplantation and the birth of stem cell biology, 1942–1961. Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 39 (2): 171–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraft, A. (2010) Paradigms and paradoxes: The search for the blood stem cell. Egenis seminar series, University of Exeter.

  • Kutcher, G. (2009) Contested Medicine. Cancer Research and the Military. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lapidot, T. et al (1994) A cell initiating human AML after transplantation into SCID mice. Nature 367: 645–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laszlo, J. (1996) The Cure of Childhood Leukemia. Into the Age of Miracles. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindee, S. (1994) Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lindee, S. (2002) Genetic disease in the 1960s: A structural revolution. American Journal of Medical Genetics 115: 75–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maehle, H. (2011) Ambiguous cells: The emergence of the stem cell concept and the connection with tumour research around 1900. Manuscript kindly provided by the author.

  • March, H.C. (1950) Leukemia in radiologists in a twenty year period. American Journal of Medical Science 220: 286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mathé, G. (1960) Application of hematopoietic cell graft to the treatment of leukemia and allied diseases. A critical review. Blood 16: 1073–1087.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, E.A. (1972) The wrong end of the stick. Experimental Hematology 22 (1): 17–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, E.A. (1982) Stem cells in normal and leukaemic hemopoiesis. Blood 62: 1–13 [The Henry Stratton Lecture].

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, S.J. and Kimble, J. (2006) Asymmetric and symmetric stem-cell divisions in development and cancer. Nature 441: 1068–1074.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowell, P. and Hungerford, D. (1960) A minute chromosome in human chronic granulocytic leukemia. Science 132: 1497–1499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowell, P.C. (1976) The clonal evolution of tumor cell populations. Science 194: 23–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, C.H., Bergsagel, D.E. and McCulloch, E.A. (1971) Mouse myeloma tumor stem cells: A primary cell culture assay. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 46: 411–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, C.Y., Tseng, D. and Weissman, I.L. (2009) Cancer stem cell-directed therapies: Recent data from the laboratory and clinic. Molecular Therapy 17 (2): 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, J.T. (1987) The Dread Disease. Cancer and Modern American Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pegg, D. (1966) Bone Marrow Transplantation. London: Lloyd Luke.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickstone, J.V. (2007) Contested cumulations: Configurations of cancer treatments through the twentieth century. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81 (1): 164–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, G.B. (1967) Teratocarcinoma: Model for a developmental concept of cancer. Current Topics in Developmental Biology 2: 223–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, G.B. and Speers, W.C. (1988) Tumors as caricatures of the process of tissue renewal: Prospects for therapy by directing differentiation. Cancer Research 48: 1996–2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pluznik, D.H. and Sachs, L. (1965) The cloning of normal mast cells in tissue culture. Journal of Cell Physiology 66: 319–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potten, C.S. and Loeffler, M. (1990) Stem cells: Attributes, cycles, spirals, pitfalls and uncertainties. Lessons for and from the crypt. Development 110 (4): 1001–1020.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proctor, R. (1995) Cancer Wars. How Politics Shapes What We Know and Don’t Know about Cancer. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reya, T. and Clevers, H. (2005) Wnt signalling and in stem cells and cancer. Nature 434: 843–850.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reya, T., Morrison, S.J., Clarke, M.F. and Weissman, I.L. (2001) Stem cells, cancer and cancer stem cells. Nature 414: 105–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhoads, C.P. (1946) Nitrogen mustards in the treatment of neoplastic disease. Journal of the American Medical Association 131: 656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, M.S. and Seeman, I. (1947) A statistical study of mortality from leukemia. Blood 2 (1): 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, G.W., Burk, P.J., Sensenbrenner, L.L. and Owens, A.H. (1970) Rationale for the use of cyclophosphamide as an immunosuppressant for marrow transplantation in man. In: A. Bertelli and A.P. Monaco (eds.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Pharmaceutical Treatment in Organ and Tissue Transplantation. Amsterdam: Exerpta Medical Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savona, M. and Talpaz, M. (2008) Getting to the stem of CML. Nature Reviews Cancer 8: 341–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seufert, W. and Seufert, W.D. (1982) The recognition of leukemia as a systemic disease. Journal of Medical History 37: 34–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, S.K. et al (2003) Identification of a CSC in human brain tumors. Cancer Research 63: 5821–5828.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somervaille, T. and Cleary, M. (2006) Identification and characterization of leukaemia stem cells in murine MLL-AF9 AML. Cancer Cell 10: 257–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strickland, S.P. (1972) Politics, Science and Dread Disease: A Short History of United States Medical Research Policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, E.D., Flournoy, N. and Buckner, C.D. (1977) Cure of leukemia by marrow transplantation. Leukemia Research 1: 67–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, E.D., Lochte, H.L., Lu, W.C. and Ferrebee, J.W. (1957) Intravenous infusion of bone marrow in patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy. New England Journal of Medicine 257: 491–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Till, J.E. and McCulloch, E.A. (1961) A direct measurement of the radiation sensitivity of normal mouse bone marrow cells. Radiation Research 14: 213–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UK Stem Cell Initiative. (2005) Report and Recommendations. The Pattison Report, November.

  • Van Bekkum, D. and Vos, J. (1967) Radiation Chimeras. Amsterdam: Logos Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wailoo, K. (1997) Drawing Blood. Technology and Disease Identity in Twentieth Century America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J.C.Y. and Dick, J.E . (2005) Cancer stem cells: Lessons from leukemia. Trends in Cell Biology 15 (9): 494–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wetmore, C. (2003) Sonic hedgehog in normal and neoplastic proliferation: Insight gained from human tumors and animal models. Current Opinion Genetics and Development 13: 34–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitby, L. (1951) Whither clinical pathology? Trends and opportunities. Journal of Clinical Pathology 4 (2): 129–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wintrobe, M. (1980) Blood, Pure and Eloquent. A Story of Discovery, of People and Ideas. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wintrobe, M. (1985) Hematology. The Blossoming of a Science. New York: Lippincott.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zipori, D. (2004) The nature of stem cells: State rather than entity. Nature Reviews Genetics 5: 873–878.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zipori, D. (2005) The stem state: Plasticity is essential, whereas self-renewal and hierarchy are optional. Stem Cells 23: 719–726.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zubrod, C.G. (1979) Historic milestones in curative chemotherapy. Seminars in Oncology 6 (4): 490–505.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper was based was funded in part by the ESRC under its Stem Cells CBAR II Programme [RES: 350-27-0005]. The author would also like to thank participants at the Emerging Diseases workshop held in 2008 at the BIOGUM Centre, University of Hamburg, where an earlier version of this article was presented.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of History, The University of Nottingham, University Park, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, UK

    Alison Kraft

Authors
  1. Alison Kraft
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kraft, A. Converging histories, reconsidered potentialities: The stem cell and cancer. BioSocieties 6, 195–216 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2011.3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2011.3

Keywords

Search

Navigation