You may hear your doctor refer to your condition as a type of. Featuring the latest stem cell research success stories. Also provides stem cell therapy and treatment information! Cell Culture Drug Resistance Testing refers to laboratory testing of a patient's own cancer cells with drugs that may be used to treat the patient's cancer.

Bone Marrow Transplants and Stem Cell Transplants for Cancer Treatment. Stem cell transplants - - from bone marrow or other sources - - can be an effective treatment for people with certain forms of cancer, such as leukemia and lymphoma. Stem cell transplants are also used for multiple myeloma and neuroblastoma, and they’re being studied as a treatment for other cancers, too. Why do cancer patients consider these transplants? While high doses of chemotherapy and radiation can effectively kill cancer cells, they have an unwanted side effect: They can also destroy the bone marrow, where blood cells are made. The purpose of a stem cell transplant or a bone marrow transplant is to replenish the body with healthy cells and bone marrow when chemotherapy and radiation are finished. After a successful transplant, the bone marrow will start to produce new blood cells.

In some cases, the transplant can have an added benefit; the new blood cells will also attack and destroy any cancer cells that survived the initial treatment. Understanding Stem Cells. While you may have heard about embryonic stem cells in the news, the stem cells used in cancer treatment are different. They’re called hematopoietic stem cells. What’s special about these cells? Unlike most cells, these stem cells have the ability to divide and form new and different kinds of blood cells. Specifically, they can create oxygen- carrying red blood cells, infection- fighting white blood cells, and clot- forming platelets.

Most stem cells are in the bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside bone. Other stem cells - - called peripheral blood stem cells - - circulate in the blood. Both types can be used in stem cell transplants for cancer treatment. Who Is a Candidate For a Stem Cell Transplant or Bone Marrow Transplant for Cancer Treatment? While stem cell transplants may be lifesaving, they’re not the right treatment for everyone. The process can be difficult and tedious. Given that the risks can be serious, deciding whether to get a stem cell transplant for cancer treatment is not easy.

Your doctor will need to consider your general physical condition, diagnosis, stage of disease, and treatments you have already had. You’ll need a number of tests to make sure that you’re healthy enough to undergo the procedure. You also need to make sure you understand the potential benefits and risks of stem cell transplants. Keep in mind that stem cell transplants only seem to be effective in treating specific types of cancer. While they were once used for breast cancer, for instance, experts no longer recommend them. Studies found that they didn’t work better than standard treatments. Continued. Where Do Transplanted Stem Cells Come From?

Stem cells for a transplant - - whether from peripheral blood cells or bone marrow - - can come from two places: your body or a matching donor’s body. Autologous transplants involve stem cells taken from your body before you’ve received chemotherapy and radiation.

The stem cells are frozen, then reintroduced to your body after treatment. Allogenic transplants involve stem cells that come from another person whose tissue type . Most donors are relatives - - preferably and most often a sibling.

To find out if stem cells match, a potential stem cell donor will have his or her blood tested in a process called human leukocyte antigen testing (HLA testing). In those very rare cases where the donor is your identical twin - - and thus a perfect match - - it’s called a “syngeneic transplant.”Another source of donated stem cells is blood taken from the umbilical cord or placenta after childbirth.

Some people choose to store or donate this blood after having a baby instead of discarding it. The process of taking the blood doesn’t pose a risk to the mother or child. However, because only a small amount of blood is in the umbilical cord and placenta, cord blood transplants are generally only used in children or small adults. Stem cells can also come from what is known as a matched unrelated donor (MUD). Your bone marrow and tissue typing is matched against an unknown donor via a bone marrow registry to find a compatible donor.

Doctors will search bone marrow registries if the patient does not have a relative who “matches” their stem cells. Continued. Collecting Bone Marrow or Stem Cells for Cancer Treatment. How would a doctor collect stem cells from you or a donor? That depends on whether you’re getting a peripheral blood stem cell transplant or a bone marrow transplant for cancer treatment.

Peripheral blood stem cells. In this approach, the stem cells circulating in the donor’s blood are harvested and stored.

This technique has become more common than bone marrow transplants for cancer treatment. Peripheral blood stem cell transplants are as effective for some, but not all cancers, but the process of donating is simpler. For a few days, the donor - - whether it’s you or another person - - will take special drugs called growth factors that temporarily increase the number of stem cells in the blood. Side effects of this drug include bone pain. Then, a health care professional will insert a catheter into a vein to filter the donor’s blood through a special machine.

This device extracts the stem cells and circulates the blood back to the body. The process usually takes two to four hours. The donor might need to repeat the process for a few days before enough stem cells have been collected. The stem cells are then frozen until the transplant.

The risks are very low. Side effects during the procedure include faintness and cramps in the hands. Bone marrow stem cells. Because harvesting bone marrow is more involved, it’s done in an operating room. The donor will be under either general anesthesia (and asleep) or regional anesthesia (which eliminates feeling from the waist down.) A doctor will then insert a needle into a bone - - usually in the hip - - and withdraw some of the bone marrow, which is then stored and frozen. The process takes one to two hours and the risks are very low. The most serious danger comes from the anesthesia itself.

The area where the needle is inserted might be sore or bruised for a few days. Donors might also feel tired for several days or weeks afterward. Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy. Before you get the stem cell transplant, you’ll get the actual cancer treatment.

To destroy the abnormal stem cells, blood cells, and cancer cells your doctor will give you high doses of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or both. In the process, the treatment will kill healthy cells in your bone marrow, essentially making it empty. Your blood counts (number of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets) will drop quickly. Since chemotherapy and radiation can cause nausea and vomiting, you might need anti- nausea drugs. Mouth sores are also a common problem that may need to be treated with pain medication. Without bone marrow, your body is vulnerable. You won't have enough white blood cells to protect you from infection.

So during this time, you might be isolated in a hospital room or required to stay at home until the new bone marrow starts growing. You might also need transfusions and medication to keep you healthy. Continued. What Happens During the Stem Cell Transplant? A few days after you’ve finished with your chemotherapy or radiation treatment, your doctor will order the actual stem cell transplant. The harvested stem cells - - either from a donor or from your own body - - are thawed and infused into a vein through an IV tube. The process is essentially painless.

The actual stem cell transplant is similar to a blood transfusion. It takes one to five hours. The stem cells then naturally move into the bone marrow. The restored bone marrow should begin producing normal blood cells after several days, or up to several weeks later. The amount of time you’ll need to be isolated will depend on your blood counts and general health.

Stem Cell Research: Uses, Types & Examples About stem cells. Greek Present Active Indicative Paradigm Shift. Stem cells are undifferentiated, or “blank,” cells. This means they’re capable of developing into cells that serve numerous functions in different parts of the body. Most cells in the body are differentiated cells. These cells can only serve a specific purpose in a particular organ. For example, red blood cells are specifically designed to carry oxygen through the blood. All humans start out as only one cell.

This cell is called a zygote, or a fertilized egg. The zygote divides into two cells, then four cells, and so on. Eventually, the cells begin to differentiate, taking on a certain function in a part of the body. This process is called differentiation. Stem cells are cells that haven’t differentiated yet. They have the ability to divide and make an indefinite number of copies of themselves. Other cells in the body can only replicate a limited number of times before they begin to break down.

When a stem cell divides, it can either remain a stem cell or turn into a differentiated cell, such as a muscle cell or a red blood cell. Uses Potential uses of stem cells. Since stem cells have the ability to turn into various other types of cells, scientists believe that they can be useful for treating and understanding diseases. According to the Mayo Clinic, stem cells can be used to: grow new cells in a laboratory to replace damaged organs or tissues correct parts of organs that don’t work properlyresearch causes of genetic defects in cellsresearch how diseases occur or why certain cells develop into cancer cellstest new drugs for safety and effectiveness Types Types of stem cells.

There are several types of stem cells that can be used for different purposes. Embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are three to five days old. They are harvested during a process called in- vitro fertilization. This involves fertilizing an embryo in a laboratory instead of inside the female body.

Embryonic stem cells are known as pluripotent stem cells. These cells can give rise to virtually any other type of cell in the body. Non- embryonic (adult) stem cells.

Adult stem cells have a misleading name, because they are also found in infants and children. These stem cells come from developed organs and tissues in the body. They’re used by the body to repair and replace damaged tissue in the same area in which they are found. For example, hematopoietic stem cells are a type of adult stem cell found in bone marrow.

They make new red blood cells, white blood cells, and other types of blood cells. Doctors have been performing stem cell transplants, also known as bone marrow transplants, for decades using hematopoietic stem cells in order to treat certain types of cancer.

Adult stem cells can’t differentiate into as many other types of cells as embryonic stem cells can. Induced pluripotent stem cells (i. PSCs)Scientists have recently discovered how to turn adult stem cells into pluripotent stem cells. These new types of cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells (i.

PSCs). They can differentiate into all types of specialized cells in the body. This means they can potentially produce new cells for any organ or tissue. To create i. PSCs, scientists genetically reprogram the adult stem cells so they behave like embryonic stem cells.

The breakthrough has created a way to “de- differentiate” the stem cells. This may make them more useful in understanding how diseases develop. Scientists are hoping that the cells can be made from someone’s own skin to treat a disease. This will help prevent the immune system from rejecting an organ transplant. Research is underway to find ways to produce i. PSCs safely. Cord blood stem cells and amniotic fluid stem cells. Cord blood stem cells are harvested from the umbilical cord after childbirth.

They can be frozen in cell banks for use in the future. These cells have been successfully used to treat children with blood cancers, such as leukemia, and certain genetic blood disorders. Stem cells have also been found in amniotic fluid. This is the fluid that surrounds a developing baby inside the mother’s womb.

However, more research is needed to help understand the potential uses of amniotic fluid stem cells. Controversy Stem cell research controversy. Adult stem cells don’t present any ethical problems. However, in recent years, there has been controversy surrounding the way human embryonic stem cells are obtained. During the process of harvesting embryotic stem cells, the embryo is destroyed. This raises ethical concerns for people who believe that the destruction of a fertilized embryo is morally wrong. Opponents believe that an embryo is a living human being.

They don’t think the fertilized eggs should be used for research. How To Reinstall Preinstalled Windows. They argue that the embryo should have the same rights as every other human and that these rights should be protected.

Supporters of stem cell research, on the other hand, believe that the embryos are not yet humans. They note that researchers receive consent from the donor couple whose eggs and sperm were used to create the embryo. Supporters also argue that the fertilized eggs created during in- vitro fertilization would be discarded anyway, so they might be put to better use for scientific research. With the breakthrough discovery of i. PSCs, there may be less of a need for human embryos in research.

This may help ease the concerns of those who are against using embryos for medical research. However, if i. PSCs have the potential to develop into a human embryo, researchers could theoretically create a clone of the donor. This presents another ethical issue to take into consideration. Many countries already have legislation in place that effectively bans human cloning. Federal regulations Federal regulations on stem cell research. In the United States, federal policy regarding stem cell research has evolved over time as different presidents have taken office.

It’s important to note that no federal regulation has ever explicitly banned stem cell research in the United States. Rather, regulations have placed restrictions on public funding and use. However, certain states have placed bans on the creation or destruction of human embryos for medical research. Stem cell policy under former President George W. Bush. In August 2. President George W. Bush approved a law that would provide federal funding for limited research on embryonic stem cells.

However, such research had to fit the following criteria: The harvesting process, which includes the destruction of the embryo, was started before 9 p. The order removed the restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research.

This allowed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin funding research that uses embryonic stem cells. The NIH then published guidelines to establish the policy under which it would fund research. The guidelines were written to help make sure that all NIH- funded research on human stem cells is morally responsible and scientifically relevant. Research Examples of stem cell research.

Stem cell research is ongoing at universities, research institutions, and hospitals around the world. Researchers are currently focusing on finding ways to control how stem cells turn into other types of cells. The process of cell differentiation. A primary goal of research on embryonic stem cells is to learn how undifferentiated stem cells turn into differentiated stem cells that form specific tissues and organs. Researchers are also interested in figuring out how to control this process of differentiation. Over the years, scientists have developed methods to manipulate the stem cell process to create a particular cell type. This process is called directed differentiation.

A recent studyalso discovered the first steps in how stem cells transform into brain cells and other types of cells. More research on this topic is ongoing. Cell- based therapies.