U.S. medical researchers say a new stem cell tracking technology might lead to major advances in the use of stem cell therapies to treat cancer.

The Stanford University researchers are using non-invasive molecular imaging technology to track the location and activity of mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, in the tumors of living organisms.

Stem cell cancer therapies are still in the early stages of development, but they offer great promise in delivering personalized medicine that will fight disease at the cellular level, said Hui Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and lead researcher of the study.

Our results indicate that molecular imaging can play a critical role in understanding and improving the process of how stem cells migrate to cancer cells. Eventually, this technique could also be used to determine if gene-modified stem cells are effective in fighting cancer.

MSCs are adult stem cells that have the ability to transform into many different types of cells, the researchers said, noting a few stem cell therapies are already being used to fight some types of cancer.

Wang and her team detailed the research in New Orleans this week during the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

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