A recently discovered method of distinguishing between stem cells and normal cells in one’s tonsils could be key in the fight against tonsil cancer.
Conducted by SFU researchers in conjunction with British Columbia Cancer Agency, the study was published last month in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
Lead author of the study is SFU student Catherine Kang, a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology. She said that stem cell markers have been previously discovered in many types of tissue, but until now there was nothing known about tonsil stem cells.
“The reason why we were interested in finding a way to isolate stem cells from the tonsils was because of the rising incidence of tonsil cancer worldwide,” said Kang.
“What is interesting about tonsil cancer is that 90 per cent of tonsil cancers show the sign of human papillomavirus [HPV] infection.”
She elaborated that, since HPV tends to enter into stem cells to spread its cancer-causing genes, the researchers were curious if the increasing incidence of tonsil cancer might have something to do with the stem cells of the tonsil tissues.
It may be too early in the research to help out those who currently are diagnosed with HPV, but the results are promising in regards to eventually understanding HPV-positive tonsil cancer.
Now that researchers are able to further investigate the disease using the new stem cell isolation technique, they can develop and build upon their existing findings. They hope this can translate into improved patient care.
Before that can happen, more work has to be done to understand how exactly HPV causes this abnormality in the tonsil stem cells. Kang said that it would also be important to determine how HPV-associated cancer in the tonsil progresses from the early stages immediately after one is infected with the virus to later on developing into cancer.
“Since the stem cells are located deep inside the crypts of the tonsil, often covered with inflammatory cells, it has been very difficult for scientists to identify histological changes that could be used to identify individuals at early stages of the disease,” said Kang.
“We need ways of visualizing changes in situ [on site] to detect such early change.”
Kang believes these findings are an important step towards preventing tonsil cancer and providing better care for sufferers.
