Have researcher tried to grow lymphnodes invivo.

Mini, please never apologize for venting around here--we all hear you, and we second your wish for recognition and a cure! YES!

Actually, there are researchers who are trying to stimulate the regrowth of the lymphatics. They're using something our bodies make called VEGF that makes new lymph vessels. There are serious problems with it. First of all, there's no way to control how many new lymph vessels it makes, so in the rabbits and pigs it's been tried in there's a whole glut of new vessels, and they grow all crazy, like weeds. The other problem is scarier, especially for those of us who have had BC. Cancer tumors need blood vessels AND LYMPH VESSELS in order to grow, the more the merrier (for the tumor, not for us!) So if we introduce a factor that causes vigorous lymph vessel growth into an area where there may be stray cancer cells remaining, it may well encourage tumor growth. So far it's only been tried in animals, where the lymphedema was created by purposely destroying the lymph vessels, and the critters had no cancer to start with. And what happened in some of these experiments was that lots of (apparently benign) tumors grew there too. Which is not exactly reassuring as far as safety is concerned.

And here's an even more alarming thing: the researchers doing this are in the U.S., but since the FDA would not allow research with VEGF on humans at this point (too risky), they're planning to start Phase I experiments on post-bc women in another country. Not surprisingly, it's planned for the country where the drug to do this with has been developed. Big pharma, big money--and in this case, big risks for our Sistahs of Swell in other parts of the world. 

So--there's hope for your idea, Mini! But it's not quite as safe and simple as we wish. Lymphedema never is!

Be well!
Binney

I ask this same question all the time! The "Why can't they just grow some nodes in a petri dish?" question. I agree, they grow everything else there!



And funny enough, Binney, I just came across an article and the company (seems they are in Finland) that is doing the clinical trial with VEGF yesterday. It appears they will start human trials the end of this year. I agree----they need to figure out how to shut the growth facors back off. It seems they are injecting the nodes upon transfer. Here is the link:

http://www.laurantis.com/products/lymfactin