Effective Way of Treating Cancers - Essay Example

?Cancer Stem Cell Bapat (2008, p.6) s that, for over three decades, researchers have been able to develop more effective way of treating cancers such as testicular cancer, child Leukemia, and Hodgkin’s disease. In addition, death rates resulting from cancers such as the prostate and breast cancers have also reduced significantly over the past few years. The reduction is attributed to advances in early diagnoses and prevention of disease. This is because there have been an advocacy encouraging people to go for testing in order to be able to treat these cancers at their early stages. Nevertheless, research shows that the survival chances of those whose cancers have reached advanced stages is not easy and have not changed for more than a decade now according to Farrar (2009, p.15-16). For instance, in the U.S., cancer is ranked the second leading cause of death. Some scientists believe that the lack of progress in the treatment of cancer emanates from the fact that many hospitals still depend on the use conventional therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery radiation. These forms of therapies are not able to kill the small cells triggering the growth of cancer in the body. Therefore, since the traditional therapies have failed to destroy the cell in a tumor causing cancer, scientists have found out that the use of cancer stem cells can be the most effective way of treating cancer related tumors (Kyoung and Celeste 2012). Research shows that the removal of stem cells in the tumor suppresses the development and spread of tumor on the organs (Bapat 2008, p.8). The killing of cancer stem cells in the body will help revolutionize cancer treatments, which in turn will see a reduction of deaths caused by cancer related ailments. Cancer stem cells refer to the cells found within the tumor with the ability to self-renew and drive tumorigenesis (Reya, Morrison, Clarke and Weissman 2001). The cancer stem cells have been discovered in several human tumors such as the colon, brain, breast and hematopoietic cancers. Research show that it is the ability of this cancer stem cells to self-renew that has made it had to treat using the traditional therapies such as radiation, surgery and chemotherapies. This is because as long as the cancer stem cells are not fully removed from the human body, the remaining cancer stem cell still self-renews thereby spreading to other parts of the body(Scatena, Mordente and Giardina 2011, p.31-34). This is the reason why patients suffering from cancer diseases tend to experience relapse even after treatments. The cancer stem cells are said to persist cancer growths as a discrete population that causes metastasis by differentiating giving rise to new tumors according to Scatena, Mordente and Giardina (2011, p.31-34; Dalerba, Cho and Clarke 2007). Evidence The existence of cancer stem cell is a controversial issue within the field of medical research since quite a number of researches that have been conducted have not been able to discover the resemblance and dissimilarities between the cancer stem cells and the normal tissue stem cells. It is argued that CSCs must have the capacity to self-renew in order to be able to maintain the several mutations needed for carcinogenesis to take place and sustain the growth and spread of a cancerous tumor. This is because the differentiated cells are not able to differentiate indefinitely. The first evidence of cancer stem cells came to the public sphere in 1997, when Bonnet and Dick, through an experiment separated a leukemia cells subpopulation, which had a CD34 surface maker, but lacked the CD38 maker. After performing the experiment, Bonnet and Dick concluded that the subpopulation CD34+/CD38- is capable of instigating tumors in NOD/SCID mice that is similar to the donor. Another evidence of CSC has originated from histology. Through histology, it has been established that tumors are heterogeneous in nature harboring several types of cells originating from the host organ (Kyoung and Celeste 2012). This property is maintained by tumor metastases. As a result, the tumor producing cells has the capacity to differentiate into different cell types. The research conducted on the lung cancer at cellular stage has also indicated that the cancerous tumors contain a diverse amount of stem cells that is responsible for the development and spread of tumor in the organs of the body. Other evidences have also shown that the tumors are made of stem cell population known as cancer initiating cells that self-renew continually thereby promoting the growth of cancer in the body. Implications of CSC for therapies and treatment of cancer and the challenges The existence of the cancer stem cells in the tumor has significant implications as far as future cancer therapies and treatments are concerned. This will entail identification of disease, proper selection of drug targets, metastasis prevention and initiation of new intervention strategies (Clarke et al. 2012). It is noted that total elimination of cancer stem cells can prevent any relapse that may occur after treatments (Kyoung and Celeste 2012). This is because research has shown that the traditional therapies that have been for a long time applied fail to eliminate the cancer stem cells, which later on self renew thereby causing a relapse of cancer in the body leading to death. Therefore, to achieve an absolute cure of any cancer, the physicians will have to focus much on the CSCs by eliminating them completely from the normal cells (Sharmila 2008, p.32). This will prevent any possibility of the CSC developing again after treatments. However, the major challenge is that, the complete elimination of the CSCs will result in killing several normal cells in the body, which may prove dangerous to the patients (Sanchez-Garcia 2010). This is certainly the biggest challenge as far as the future cancer therapies and treatment is concerned. Conclusion Cancer is indeed one of the deadliest diseases in the world today claiming many lives both the young and the old, rich and the poor. This is because researchers have not managed to identify the right properties and treatments capable of eliminating cancer tumors completely. For instance, the conventional therapies such as surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapies have not been successful in the complete eradication of the tumor. This is because, according to research the tumors are made of cancer stem cells with the capacity to self-renew thereby causing a relapse after treatment. Nevertheless, the discovery of cancer stem cell will aid more research, which certainly will help in the discovery of a better therapy and treatment method to adopt in order to treat cancer completely and prevent relapse. References Bapat, S.A. (2008), Cancer Stem Cells: Identification and Targets, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Clarke, M.F., Dick, J.E., Dirks, P.B., Eaves, C.J., Jamieson, C.H.M., Jones, D.L., Visvader, J., Weissman, I.L., & Wahl, G.M. (2012), Cancer Stem Cells—Perspectives on Current Status and Future Directions: AACR Workshop on Cancer Stem Cells, viewed 11 Dec. 2012 http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/66/19/9339.full Dalerba P, Cho R. and Clarke M. (2007), Cancer stem cells: models and concepts, Annu Rev Med. Vol. 2 No. 58 pp. 267-84. Farrar, W.L. (2009), Cancer Stem Cells, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kyoung E. and Celeste S. (2012), From stem cells to cancer stem cells: HIF takes the stage Current Opinion in Cell Biology, Volume 24, Issue 2, April 2012, Pages 232–235 Reya T., Morrison S., Clarke M. and Weissman I. (2001), Stem cells, cancer, and cancer stem cells, Nature vol. 414 No. 6859, pp.105-11. Sanchez-Garcia, I. (2010), Cancer stem cells: The last promise for a cancer cure? EuroStemCell, viewed 11 Dec. 2012 http://www.eurostemcell.org/commentanalysis/cancer-stem-cells-last-promise-cancer-cure Scatena, R., Mordente, A., & Giardina, B. (2011), Advances in Cancer Stem Cell Biology, Springer, New York, NY. Sharmila, A.B. (2008), Cancer Stem Cells: Identification and Targets, John Wiley & Sons. Hoboken, NJ. Read More