Stem Cell Therapy in Cancer Treatment

Stem cell therapy involves introduction of new cells into damaged tissues to treat a disease. The self-renewing ability of stem cells offers hope that the diseased and damaged tissues of the body can be replaced with new cells, with minimum risk of side effects and/or rejection. There are different types of stem cell therapies and a considerable amount of research is being conducted to understand the finer aspects of its potential.

Stem cell research is also controversial due to the use of human embryonic stem cells. The controversy is primarily around the technique that is used to derive new embryonic stem cell lines, which involves the destruction of the blastocyst. There are several ethical, moral, religious and philosophical objections raised against human embryonic stem cells.

Stem cells have been used for more than 30 years in replenishing the blood and immune systems that are damaged during chemotherapy or radiation. Now, stem cells are also being reported as helpful in regenerating tissues and to serve as effective delivery vehicles for cancer treatments.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality despite all the scientific advances that we have made. The traditional cancer treatment practices such as radiation and chemotherapy destroys healthy bone marrow along with cancer cells. Without bone marrow, the body is unable to make the blood cells that are needed to carry oxygen to the tissues, and to prevent infection and bleeding. Stem cell transplantation allows the bone marrow to produce healthy cells. It makes it possible for the patient to receive radiation and chemotherapy in high doses, while reducing the usual side effects caused by the destruction of healthy bone marrow.

Stem cell transplants are of 3 types. Autologous stem cell transplant

Here, the stem cell transplant is autologous, which means you donate your own stem cells to treat your disease. Your own bone marrow is harvested and frozen till it is required at a later date. After the chemotherapy, radiation, or both, the previously harvested stem cells are introduced back into your body. This will replace the bone marrow cells that are destroyed by radiation along with the cancer cells.

Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant

Allogenic transplant means that your bone marrow is replaced with that of a donor. Healthy bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are harvested from another donor and frozen till it is required at a later date. The traditional practice for allogenic stem cells transplants has been to harvest stem cells from the bone marrow, but of late there is an increase in the usage of peripheral blood stem cells as well.

Syngeneic Stem Cell Transplant

Syngenic stem cell transplant involves the harvesting of stem cells from your identical twin. In allogenic stem cell transplant, there is an inherent risk of the transplant being rejected. Since identical twins have the same set of genes, they also have the same HLA antigens. Therefore, the chances of the transplant being reduced are considerably low. Syngenic transplants are quite rare because of the low number of identical twin births.