Chemotherapy and Stem Cells

More then 550,000 people die each year from cancer. Scientists are still struggling to find a cure, even a vaccine for the disease. While there have been a number of cures developed in the past, if the cancer is not caught early enough, the treatments may not work. As the death toll due to cancer rises each year, one of the main focuses of the world remains stem cell research.

At birth, most human organs hold undeveloped stem cells. As stem cells mature, they separate into two; one cell goes on to replace an old cell, and the other is left behind to mature into another two cells. In some organs, the stem cells must split more frequently. The lifespan of cells in bone marrow, for example, is only a couple of days.

One theory that has been developed is that when stem cells have split as many times as they possibly can, they stop reproducing. Because no new cells are being made, the organ stops working properly, and it is believed that this may result in death for a fair number of elderly people.

Understanding the above theory, we see that in order for humans to survive, stem cells are extremely important. It's here that chemotherapy comes into play. I'm sure that most people know that chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that is meant to destroy cancer cells. A downfall of the treatment is that is also kills stem cells. While the remaining stem cells can produce new cells, high dosages of the treatment may kill so many cells that they must be replaced after the treatment, often with a bone marrow transplant, or something very similar.

So why all the fuss? Scientists are constantly using stem cells, not only in cancer research, but also in the development of treatments of other life-threatening diseases. Many groups find this practice unethical. They are opposed to this research because in order to obtain stem cells, scientists must destroy a human embryo.

In 2001, George Bush, President of the United States, announced that there would be a limited amount of federal funding available for embryonic stem cell research. Among other groups, anti-abortion activists were opposed to this action, which became more complicated after an announcement was made by a group of scientist in Virginia. They claimed that had created human embryos, solely for the purpose of extracting stem cells.

Recently a new study showed that it was possible to extract stem cells from the amniotic fluid that surrounds an unborn baby. While the stem cells are rare, (only one in every two hundred cells) they are there. Using stem cells from amniotic fluid would allow the research to take place in countries where the experimentation using human embryos has been banned. In order to collect the stem cells from amniotic fluid, the unborn baby is not killed, so the practice is not considered immoral. More studies are being set in place to establish whether the idea is realistic or not.

There have been no cures invented thus far using stem cells, but researchers say that the potential is promising. And ethical or not, the research continues in many countries.