The fifth volume in the essential series on stem cell biology provides a detailed explanation of the mechanisms of self-renewing cancer stem cells, as well as their ability to generate the heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells that comprise tumors. It explores the unique resistance of cancer stem cells to conventional chemotherapy techniques able to kill a tumor’s constituent cells. The contents also include a discussion of the myriad applications of a selection of stem cells in treating disease and tissue injury. The cells singled out include human mesenchymal, arterial, neural, cardiac, dental, limbal, and hematopoietic stem cells. The therapeutic utility of uniquely adaptable human embryonic stem cells, able to generate any human cell type, is explored in depth. The volume looks at their uses in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, as well as pharmacological, toxicological, and cell differentiation research. It also sheds light on the processes by which embryonic stem cells begin to differentiate by aggregating into more complex embryoid bodies. With additional material on targeting self-renewal pathways in cancer stem cells, the use of mesenchymal stem cells in treating ischemic brain injury, and the phenomenon of neural stem cell proliferation around traumatic brain injuries, this richly diverse and hugely informative book is a powerful tool for deepening professional expertise among researchers and practitioners in this field.

It is difficult to overstate the potential applications of stem-cell biology to our understanding of, and responses to, disease and injury. This volume aims to bring to its readers authoritative and responsive coverage of aspects of the field that will keep them up-to-date in a fast-moving scientific landscape. The fourth volume in the series on stem cells and their cancer-carrying counterparts, this book sets out the plethora of therapeutic applications offered by a group of specific stem cells in tackling disease and tissue injury. The list of subjects includes embryonic, induced pluripotent, human hair follicle, bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal, adipose-derived, cancer, and breast cancer stem cells, in addition to periodontal/progenitor cells. The adaptability of human embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell type, ensures them an especially detailed treatment.

Contributions explore the causal influence of cancer stem cells in malignancies such as cancer and breast cancer, and delineate the way mesenchymal stem cells contribute to the growth and metastasis of colon cancer. Shifting from disease to treatment, the text explains the therapeutic value of transplanting mesenchymal stem cells to the injured brain as an aid to its recovery. It includes material, too, on the exciting prospect of valuable new targeted cancer drugs borne of our increasing understanding of the molecular pathways peculiar to tumor biology. Key topics, such as the benefit of stem cell transplantation to immune system recovery among severe combined immunodeficiency patients, and the treatment of malignant gliomas using genetically modified neural stem cells as markers, provide a window on cutting-edge work in these specialized subjects. The extensive scope and detailed analysis of this volume, and of the series to which it belongs, mean that whether readers want a breakdown of the impact being made bycancer stem cell research on the design of next-generation cancer therapies, or details of the way stem cells could transform regenerative medicine by repairing damage to vital organs and tissues, they will find these―and much more―here.