Information about several papers discussed at the 23rd Genes and Cancer meeting at the University of Warwick in England from December 11-13, 2006 is presented. The meeting covered broad areas of gene expression, cancer stem cells, tumor suppressors, and genome stability. Studies that aim to identify cancer stem cells on the basis of gene expression patterns were also tackled. Dominique Bonnet from London Research Institute of Cancer Research discussed the study on leukeamia stem cells.