What do cancer cells and the developing embryo have in common? The answer is "a whole lotta genes"! My own work and those of my colleagues in the stem cell field show that there are a number of similarities between cancer and embryos. It seems that some cancers--leukemias, brain tumors, and eye tumors show subsets of stem cells that resemble cells from embryos. This is important because these "cancer stem cells" are the ones believed to be responsible for spreading tumors to distant sites and resisting chemotherapy drugs. It only takes one cancer stem cell behaving badly to propagate tumors that will not respond to chemo. By studying the behavior of these cancer stem cells, we can develop new treatments to kill tumors more effectively.
Food for thought: If there are stem cells in tumors that have the potential to develop into a human being, are the fundamentalists going to argue against surgical removal of malignant tumors in order to save the "potential human life" therein?
10 comments:
Ohhhh! Ahhhhh! Preddy!
Wait, those aren't fireworks?
It's a breast cancer cell, up close and personal.
baby killer.
KEvron
Whore!
ooof!
KEvron
totally off topic, but in reference to your comment on my last very obtuse post about analyst "A": what makes you think it was a "him" ? Doh! there's a clue right there! I'm working on a way to impart the information I learned and have it make sense without revealing the source. It's much harder being an amateur journalist than I'd imagined!
Brit, I was just being silly and giving the person a "A" for effort. I have no clue whether the person was male or female.... I suppose I have a 50/50 chance! ;)
Hey Doc!
I dread the day the topic of stem cells explodes in the HPS world - it's a matter of time, and given the religious sensibilities of the community in general - look out!
Personally, I'm all for it. I've got two questions that I'm just curious about. (Being the completely non medical person I am.)
1. When an embryo is created "naturally" or "the old fashioned way" how often does it actually result in a pregnancy? (Since they use so many when they're doing it in a clinic to up the odds, I just wondered.)
2. The opponents often argue that stem cells are available from other sources besides embryos. Are all stem cells created equally sort of speak? In other words, are they interchangible? Or do stem cells that come from embryos have different properties than say, stem cells found in bone marrow?
Heather--Sorry for the delay in answering.
1. I don't know the statistics on how often a fertilization results in a full-term pregnancy. Very often, the pregnancy miscarries without the mother even knowing about it.
2. No one knows whether all stem cells are created equal (embryonic vs. adult vs. cancer). For this reason, we need to be able to make comparisons between all of them.
Thanks Doc!
A few years ago I begged my way into sitting in on a few classes at the University of Kansas medical school about stem cells. The prof. sited a stat of one in four, but when I asked him about it afterwards, he couldn't give me a reference. I always wondered how anyone would know? Grin!
BTW - saw a speech by Sen. Frist today about funding stem cell research on C-SPAN. It was pretty good. Of course my senator, Sen. Brownback, had to stand up and differ with Frist. Man, does he have to tell people he's from Kansas? Geeesh!
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