Exploring the Heterogeneity of Cancer Cells and Relevance to Therapy

The Fifth Gordon Conference on Stems Cells and Cancer will focus on understanding how cancer stem cells behave and interact with their niche. There is a tremendous interest in heterogeneity among cancer cells as clonal evolution occurs in tumors. A number of new therapies have been sought to counter particularly aspects of this heterogeneity. Tumors will be investigated including melanoma, leukemia, lymphoma, muscle tumors, colon cancer, breast cancer, squamous cell cancer, medullar blastoma, and others. There is an interest in understanding the interaction between normal stem cells and cancer biology and this will also be a goal of the meeting. Topics that will be explored at the meeting will be to examine diversity of cancer stem cells as they regulate metastasis, an understanding of normal stem cell biology including epigenetic regulation, and understanding of aging and cancer, cancer stem cell biology including clonal evolution. A therapeutic aim will be to target cancer stem cells and examine their niches. A comparison of normal hematopoiesis and stem cells in leukemia will also be discussed. There will also be a GRS associated with this conference, allowing students and postdoctoral fellows to explore aspects of cancer and stem cells with experts in the field. These talks at the GRC should allow us to have a better understanding of how cancer arises and the process by which the niche interacts.