Stem cells blamed for cancer re-growth

PARIS (AFP) - Researchers presented evidence on Wednesday for the existence of cancer stem cells, with three different studies seeking to end a decades-old scientific dispute about how tumours grow.

The discovery should lead to new drugs targeting stem cells that cause tumours to reappear after cancer therapy, the teams argued in three scientific papers published simultaneously in the journals Nature and Science.

"The hypothesis (that cancer stem cells exist) has been around now for some time. Hopefully these three papers now make an end to the discussion," Dutch researcher Hugo Snippert told AFP.

All the studies were conducted on lab mice.