The Types of Stem Cell Treatments for Cancer
- Stem cells are immature cells found in the bone marrow, bloodstream and umbilical cords. They act as a repair system in many tissues throughout the body, replenishing other cells. They are capable of renewing themselves through cell division, and they have the capability to become tissue or organ cells.
- The ability to replace damaged stem cells make it possible for patients to receive very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy to impact cancer cells. But these treatments damage or destroy a patient's bone marrow in the process. Bone marrow is necessary to make blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body, to fight infection and to prevent bleeding. Bone marrow transplantation and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation replace the stem cells that were destroyed by the chemotherapy and radiation.
- Stem cells develop into blood cells and can be used in bone marrow transplantation and blood stem cell transplantation to restore stem cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation during cancer treatments. Bone marrow transplantation and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation are procedures that are used in this process. This can be done in three ways: where the patient receives his own stem cells, where the patient receives stem cells from an identical twin or where the patient receives stem cells from a brother, sister, parent or unrelated donor.
- Every cancer contains a small fraction of stem cells that cause the cancer to grow. A new concept is that therapies that target and kill these specific stem cells can improve a patient's change of surviving cancer or even curing the disease. The cancer stem cell concept is a radically different approach from using chemotherapy and radiation to destroy cancers. Only a small number of cancer stem cells must be eradicated to cure the cancer. The hope now is to develop some form of cancer therapy over the next 10 to 20 years that may increase survival for at least some men with prostate cancer.
- Stem cells have the potential to be used to vaccinate against colon cancer, according to scientists from the United States and China. This discovery that human stem cells are able to immunize patients against colon cancer is new and revealing. The research is the first of its kind and was born from a collaboration between the laboratories of Dr. Zihai Li and stem cell expert Dr. Renhe Xu at the University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute. "This finding potentially opens up a new paradigm for cancer vaccine research," said Dr. Zihai Li. "Cancer and stem cells share many molecular and biological features. By immunizing the host with stem cells, we are able to 'fool' the immune system to believe that cancer cells are present and thus to initiate a tumor-combating immune program."
