How Stem Cells Can affect Metastatic Breast Cancer Patient

jenrio

 I have been accused of "pushing stem cells".   Here's why I think stem cell therapy can improve metastatic breast cancer patients' chances. 

1.  Heart stem cells help low LVEF-heart to regain muscle.   Implication to cancer patients?   If this research pans out, then patients who had already had lifetime doxocirubin or reaction to Herceptin can have more doxuribin/Herceptin if it's needed. 

http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/news-releases/2010/adult-stem-cells-help-injured-hearts.html

2,   Liver stem cell to reduce mortality after hepatic resection.  Implication see below

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22156926

3.   Liver stem cells to grow whole organ.  30% of MBC goes to liver.  Of that about 70+% have multiple mets.   Traditionally liver resection is offered to metastatic colorectal cancer patients, but not to breast cancer patients, because the volume of liver to be resected can be bigger and repeat resection may be necessary.   Yet liver mets carries the worst prognosis other than brain mets.    One day, patient's own liver stem cells can be purified and grow into whole liver and be retransplanted.   That will be wonderful:

http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2010/Researchers_Engineer_Miniature_Human_Livers_in_the_Lab.htm

 

Prevention and screening is a deadend that yields decreasing marginal returns and all it does is kicking the can down the road.   Metastatic breast cancer mortality rate improves slower than the overall breast cancer mortality rate, and the treatment is trial and error.   The only way to cure breast cancer is to cure the metastatic breast cancer, 95%-100%.  Including the triple negatives, the liver involved, the brain involved.  

 

Innovation has always saved our butts, and will save our butts in future.   Stem cell research is gaining momentum across the world.   I am happy to push for it and run commercials for it.    There are lots of things patients can do to accelerate the process, like participating in clinical trials, going to major NCI cancer centers, donating tissue and blood samples, asking questions to make sure the research data will be shared, pushing for better quality clinical trials to be designed, pushing for funding basic/translational research.    My blog makes more elaborate cases for these patients participation.  Please don't be put off by the lousy English.   I am not an english major or a marketer:

http://killerboob.blogpost.com

ihatesnowihatesnow

http://cardiff.ac.uk/research/cancerstemcell/aboutcancerstemcells/index.html#link5

 http://stemcells.nih.gov/

jenrio

Thanks!  The first link refers to "cancer stem cells".   These often survive chemotherapy and is the ones we want to kill.   Much research needs to be done:  

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?flds=Xh&flds=a&flds=b&flds=c&flds=f&flds=i&flds=j&flds=o&flds=t&term=breast+cancer+stem+cell&recr=Open&no_unk=Y&show_flds=Y

 The 2nd link is the one about the good "stem cells".   The ones we can use to help heart/liver regenerate.   The good "stem cells" can be embryonic or adult, self or foreign.   Cancer patients would prefer the self stem cells.

ihatesnowihatesnow

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?

jenrio

How do you link to external site?   There are fields that you append to your link to do a fast search with refined results.

thanks!

jen 

jenrio

Adding a new link for liver stem cell research:

http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/center-for-regenerative-medicine/liver-regeneration.cfm
 

Another link for trade offs on secondary liver cancer

http://www.totalhealth.co.uk/clinical-experts/mr-robert-hutchins/treating-secondary-liver-cancer 

ihatesnowihatesnow

NANOTECH

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/40347/

jenrio

Clinical trials for nanoparticle drug delivery here:

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01300533?term=BIND+biosciences&rank=1
 

One of the inventor's papers:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Farokhzad 

Very cool!   The cure could come from many fronts.   A well targetted delivery system could well increase effectiveness of existing drugs and old abandoned drugs.

Jen

ihatesnowihatesnow

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/589403/?sc=rsmn

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430192621.htm

jenrio

Pretty cool!   Some quotes 

"Comparing gene expression between GD2+ cells and CD44 high/CD24 low cells (existing stem cell marker) revealed 100 percent correlation in the expression of 231 genes"

Mice injected with 1 million breast cancer cells having a small interfering RNA that blocked GD3 synthase never developed tumors even after eight weeks, while all of the control mice with active GD3S developed tumors. 

The hunt for the real "cancer stem cell" is ongoing.   Any new drug targetting cancer stem cells need to be less toxic to normal stem cells; Or researchers need to figure out how to better deliver the drugs to the cancer stem cells.    Lots to work out here.