Stem Cell Therapy For Cancer

Cancer – one of the most dreaded disease of mankind.  Many research and experiments to treat cancer has been going on for many years.  Radio therapy, chemotherapy, stem-cell therapy, etc.  And one of the effective methods to treat cancer so far experimented is Stem Cell treatment.

Stem cell treatment involves in introducing new cells into damaged tissue to treat disease.  Many stem cell therapies have come into existence and research is continuing to treat many varieties of diseases through stem cell therapy.  Cancer treatment through stem cell therapy has witnessed many breakthroughs in the recent years.  Stem cells are used in immuno-modulation or reconstitution and  is one of the methods used in cancer therapy.

Stem Cells are categorized into Embryonic, Germinal and Somatic.  Cell mass originating from the inner cell mass of blastocyst is called Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) and these have indefinite replicative life span. Cells that are derived from primary germinal layers of embryo are called Germinal Stem Cells and they differentiate into progenitor cells and produce organ cells.   Somatic cells (also called adult stem cells) exist in mature tissues such as haematopoietic, neural, gastrointestinal and mesenchymal tissues. The most commonly used adult stem cells (ASCs) derived from bone marrow are haemopoietic stem cells.  The adult stem cells are used in cancer treatment.

Cancer stem cells are characterized by

  • Cells having capability of self-renewal.
  • Stem cell numbers being rigid or fixed i.e. having a limited number of cells without multiplying in large numbers.
  • Ability to divide and differentiate to generate all functional elements of that particular tissue.

Cancer treatment is based in identifying of the type of cell capable of sustaining the neo-plastic growth. The cancer stem cells have shown not only self-renewal capability but also generating wide spectrum of progeny, like normal stem cells.  For over 30 years, stem cells have been used to treat cancer by way of replenishing blood and immune systems damaged by cancer cells or during treatment of cancer by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Apart from their use in the immuno-reconstitution, the stem cells have been reported to have shown tissue regeneration in the cancer treatments.  Treatment of cancer through stem-cell therapy has given many cancer patients the much needed relief.