  Cancer stem cells are controlled by developmental networks that are often
topologically indistinguishable from normal, healthy stem cells. The question
is why cancer stem cells can be both phenotypically distinct and have
morphological effects so different from normal stem cells. The difference
between cancer stem cells and normal stem cells lies not in differences their
network architecture, but rather in the spatial-temporal locality of their
activation in the genome and the resulting expression in the body. The
metastatic potential cancer stem cells is not based primarily on their network
divergence from normal stem cells, but on non-network based genetic changes
that enable the evolution of gene-based phenotypic properties of the cell that
permit its escape and travel to other parts of the body. Stem cell network
theory allows the precise prediction of stem cell behavioral dynamics and a
mathematical description of stem cell proliferation for both normal and cancer
stem cells. It indicates that the best therapeutic approach is to tackle the
highest order stem cells first, otherwise spontaneous remission of so called
cured cancers will always be a danger. Stem cell networks point to a pathway to
new methods to diagnose and cure not only stem cell cancers but cancers
generally.
