Patients with Fanconi anemia have an elevated risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a highly aggressive head-and-neck cancer. New findings pinpoint the mechanisms linking the two conditions, and also shed new light on how smoking or drinking may elevate anyone’s cancer risk.
The findings suggest that many of the mutations in cancer may simply be setting in stone a path already forged by the tumor stem cell’s aberrant dialogue with its surroundings.
Rockefeller’s new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Institute for Global Infectious Disease Research will provide a framework for international scientific collaboration.