SEAN MCCABE
When the US National Cancer Institute initiated its “Provocative Questions” project at the end of 2010, it asked scientists to submit “inquiries addressed to important problems and paradoxes in cancer research that have received insufficient attention for various reasons.” The Institute allowed that some of the questions could re-explore older, neglected observations while others could be based on more recent findings or new ways to tackle perplexing, seemingly intractable problems. “They should draw attention to significant yet under-appreciated opportunities for advancing our understanding of cancer and for developing new prospects for controlling it.”
The very first of the 117 provocative questions submitted online dealt with cancer stem cells, the subject of this month’s cover story. Though cancer stem cells have hardly been neglected, they certainly ...
