Treatments Autologous Stem Cell Transplants

This video details autologous stem cell transplants and offers insightful animations of the procedure.

In an autologous stem cell transplant, you are your own donor. Your peripheral blood stem cells are taken from you, frozen until needed, then given back to you after you have received high doses of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or both, to destroy cancer cells.

“An autologous stem cell transplant removes your bone marrow stem cells so that you can be given larger doses of chemotherapy and radiation. Following therapy, your unharmed stem cells are returned”

Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Diabetes Drug Kills Cancer Stem Cells In Combination Treatment In Mice

From ScienceDaily.com

In a one-two punch, a familiar diabetes drug reduced tumors faster and prolonged remission in mice longer than chemotherapy alone, apparently by targeting cancer stem cells, report Harvard Medical School researchers in the Sept. 14 advance online Cancer Research.

“We have found a compound selective for cancer stem cells,” said senior author Kevin Struhl, the David Wesley Gaiser professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS. “What’s different is that ours is a first-line diabetes drug.”

The findings add to a growing body of preliminary evidence in cells, mice, and people that metformin may improve breast cancer outcomes in people. In this study, the diabetes drug seemed to work independently of its ability to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar and insulin levels, all of which are also associated with better breast cancer outcomes.

The results fit within the cancer stem cell hypothesis, an intensely studied idea that a small subset of cancer cells has a special power to initiate tumors, fuel tumor growth, and promote recurrence of cancer. Cancer stem cells appear to resist conventional chemotherapies, which kill the bulk of the tumor.

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