could government funding for stem cell research help to find better cancer treatments?

Question

just wondering.

Answer 1

Stem cell research could absolutely help improve cancer treatments, and because a large portion of medical research is government funded, government funding of stem cell research is critical.

Believe it or not, cancer cells actually have quite a bit in common with stem cells. As you probably already know, stem cells are undifferentiated cells, meaning they aren't any particular type of tissue, they're just cells that can turn into specific types. They basically look like generic cells. Skin cells are flat, neurons are long and kind of tree-like, but stem cells are just kind of blob-like. They look something like the pictures of generic cells you might have seen in biology textbooks (the ones where the show all the organelles, and the cell is just kind of a generic blog with no specialized structures). They can also keep dividing indefinitely, unlikely differentiated cells that can only divide so many times before the cell line just dies. They also tend to divide more quickly than normal cells, particularly if the produce cells that are in constant demand (for example, stem cells in the bone marrow produce blood cells, which constantly need to be replaced, and stem cells in the hair follicles produce hair cells, and hair is always growing).

Cancer cells are normal somatic cells that have, in a sense, undifferentiated. A cancer cell might have started out as a skin cell, but by the time it's in something that would be considered a tumor, it's barely recognizable as a skin cell, and is more of a generic blob. It can also keep dividing indefinitely.

Because cancer cells are so similar to stem cells, cancer treatments tend to destroy stem cells along with cancer cells. The reason that a patient's hair typically falls out during chemo is that the chemicals used to kill the cancer cells also kill the stem cells in the hair follicles. More problematic are the stem cells in the bone marrow. Those ones produce both red and white blood cells, which are pretty darned important. Cancer patients will often develop anemia (from too few red blood cells), and weakened immune systems (from too few white blood cells) during chemo, and may even need a bone marrow transplant.

Improved understanding of the physiological differences between stem cells and cancer cells would allow researchers to design cancer treatments that don't attack cancer cells. Also, improved understanding of the mechanisms of differentiation might lead to a better understanding of exactly what goes wrong in cancer cells (since they basically differentiated in reverse), which might lead to the ability to reverse the damage to the cell that caused it to become cancerous in the first place.

Answer 2

Anything a Government can do towards finding a cure for all cancers is commendable and should be supported with vigor.
However i do not believe that a Government is capable of balancing the Country's treasury fairly and just.... I look around myself, and find all nations, warring with each other over trivial matters such as Gas/Oil which have nearly been depleted... Unwillingness to look after our environment, for the sake of economics.... One country is well on its way, to decide the course of everybody´s fate on this planet for the better part of a 100 years, now, and look where it brought them... trillions into debt, interfering in Nations politics on other continents, as if they have been ordered to do so by UN Council, which is as far from the truth as Santa Claus really existing.. Any research on the cure of cancer should be widely supported by us all, even if it means, having to fund some of it ourselves by donating to the cause.... eh, when it is a priority in your personal view.....

Answer 3

The government takes so much money, and because it is such a large bureaucracy consequently cannot help but waste a lot of money, it is almost unconscionable that they not fund stem cell research, even if one believes the chance of it finding a cure are tiny.


("Freaking_moron", you are confusing "petroleum" with organic chemistry. Atoms arranged differently behave differently. If you drink H2O2 you will probably die, if you DON'T drink H2O you will definitely die! if you visit the site for the FSM {search 'FSM' on google} you will see there is also a perfect correlation between global temperatures and pirates, so by your logic, the "cure" for global warming would be to have more pirates!)

Answer 4

Their is a though that stem cells and stemness are the sources of resistance to therapeutic treatment modalities currently in use. Therefore the possibility that this may be the mechanism of resistance is well worth investing in so we can determine if this concept is valid or not. What's at stake? Thousands of lives,
millions of dollars and human suffering and death. .

Answer 5

You bet. There's already a world of new discoveries thanks to it.

One of the most exciting things I've read about cancer research for the future is this, nano-technology:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/d865c4522fa84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

I'll paste one part of it here:

Today's best cancer treatments destroy tumor cells with about as much precision as an atomic bomb. Now researchers at Rice University are developing tumor-frying "nanoshells" that spare healthy tissue. The treatment, which begins clinical trials early next year, hinges on cancer-specific antibodies glued to nano-scale spheres of glass and gold. Here, a guided tour of how nanoshells will kill cancer inside the body.

(1) Each gold-coated nanoshell is about 10,000 times smaller than a white blood cell. To diagnose and treat cancer, a doctor injects thousands of them into the patient's bloodstream. Dispersed inside the body, the nanoshells seek out and bind to tumor cells via antibodies stuck to their surface. (2) Once roughly 20 nanoshells cover each tumor, a brief exposure to near-infrared light, which passes harmlessly through tissue, illuminates the shells. Next, doctors deliver a more intense near-infrared dose, heating only bound tumors. (3) Free-floating electrons on the outer gold shells concentrate the intensified near-infrared energy, heating each individual nanoshell and cooking the tumor--all during a single visit to the doctor's office.

You can read how stem cell research probably contributed to this too: (Click on View photos when you scroll down part way and read the articles on each page listed there...click on "next photo" to see each new discovery)

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/4b2ec6f39986c010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Answer 6

i believe there is a cure for cancer. my wife has ovarian cancer that has spread to all of her major organs. the surgeon opened her up and closed her right back up. he said he would do more damage trying to remove it. he said try chemo and see if that will shrink it enough to remove it, but there is very little hope. so I've researched this ALOT and I've bought everything from b-17 (which i started taking and my sciatic nerve quit hurting and my blood pressure is more normal than it's ever been) to ozone generator and everything in between. my wife refuses to try them but I've bought them.
my mother (skin cancer) and my brother in law (hip,lymph,lung and brain) were all having surgery on the same day at the same time at different hospitals. my brother in law was having a hole drilled into his hip to scrape out the cancer and to put bone cement in so his hip wouldn't break. when they checked the cancer cells that had been removed they were all dead!! he was drinking this nasty tea that you make from a tree bark from south America. he isn't doing very good now. I'm sure it's spread too far. but back to my thoughts on a cure. HAS ANYONE EVER HEARD OF A HIGH RANKING PUBLIC OFFICIAL EVER DYING FROM CANCER? if you have please post it. it's like the deadly aids virus the last time i seen magic Johnson on TV he looked very healthy to me

Answer 7

It is very possible, many believe that stem cell research could help find cures to cancer and many other deadly diseases.

Answer 8

I don't think so. They don't WANT a cure for it. Every day they make decisions that will help keep cancer going forever.

I feel strongly that our food is the biggest problem with the rise in cancer. FD&C food colors are made out of petroleum, artificial flavors are usually derived from petroleum. BHT, BHA, TBHQ are petroleum based and one is actually used TO PROMOTE the GROWTH of TUMORS in lab animals. And we put this stuff in our food supply?! I don't care what the FDA says, these things were not meant to be consumed and processed by our bodies. Why do they say not to sniff gas fumes, but it's ok to eat things made from petroleum. It's a contradiction and it's killing us. We don't need bright blue food, or Red#40 added to our salmon so it looks more "natural".

Many of these things came onto market in the late 60's, early 70's and that is when the rise of many of our health problems started. Why do we have so many kids with ADD, ADHD, OCD, birth defects, cancer, etc? We have poisoned ourselves and most don't realize it!

Help us wage a war on the food industry while you are fighting for a cure. People with cancer really don't need BHT in their food to make their cancer grow.

Answer 9

We are stretched pretty thin right now with other pressing issues if you have noticed lately.
Research is going along privately with many product oriented projects TBA very soon..
Generally government dollars are not well spent unless there are refined projects that need acceleration..
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Answer 10

appearently we are making little, but some progress in Canada, with only a 10'th of the funds and resurces available to the U.S. of A., imagine what the good 'ol U.S. of A. could do