[Ben S.]

Are there pre-malignancy B cells acting like stem cells?

by Ben S. on Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:00 pm

Just read an interesting paper published by German researchers a few days ago on the all-important question of whether there exist pre-maligancy B cells acting like stem cells that feed the myeloma cell population and lead to the relapse of the disease. The existence of these "stem cells" is currently deemed as an explanation why all current agents attacking the myeloma cells only can not possibly cure the disease.

While the paper explicitly claims that its results do not directly reject the "feeder" cell hypothesis, it does say that they challenge the concept "as a general principle and indispensable prerequisite for myeloma pathogenesis and progression." In addition, the paper refers to an analysis of class switch recombination from IgM to IgG or IgA in multiple myeloma as another evidence questioning the role of such "stem cells."

My knowledge in this regard is so limited that I could barely finish reading the introduction section. But I am sure better quaified members of this forum, including the Medical Advisors, would be able to provide better analyses. Here is the link:

http://goo.gl/fX799

[suzierose]

Re: Are there pre-malignancy B cells acting like stem cells?

by suzierose on Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:48 am

Hmmmm,...seems to be a rare occurence

"In view of the assay's validated sensitivity level of 10−3, this surprising data suggests that the abundance of such cells has been vastly overestimated in the past and that they apparently represent a very rare population in myeloma."