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Cancer Stem Cell The first conclusive evidence for CSCs was published in 1997 in Nature Medicine.

Bonnet and Dick[2] isolated a subpopulation of leukaemic cells that express a specific surface marker CD34, but lacks the CD38 marker. The authors established that the CD34+/CD38- subpopulation is capable of initiating tumors in NOD/SCID mice that is histologically similar to the donor.[3] Not only is finding the source of cancer cells necessary for successful treatments, but if current treatments of cancer do not properly destroy enough CSCs, the tumor will reappear. Including the possibility that the treatment of for instance, chemotherapy, will leave only chemotherapy-resistant CSCs, then the ensuing tumor will most likely also be resistant to chemotherapy. If the cancer tumor is detected early enough, enough of the tumor can be killed off and marginalized with traditional treatment. But as the tumor size increases, it becomes more and more difficult to remove the tumor without conferring resistance and leaving enough behind for the tumor to reappear. Some treatments with chemotherapy, such as paclitaxel in ovarian cancer (a cancer usually discovered in late stages), may actually induce chemoresistance (55-75% relapse <2 years[11]). It potentially does this by destroying only the cancer cells susceptible to the drug (targeting those that are CD44-positive, a trait which has been associated with increased survival time in some ovarian cancers), and allowing the cells which are unaffected by paclitaxel (CD44-negative) to regrow, even after a reduction in over a third of the total tumor size.[12] There are studies, though, which show how paclitaxel can be used in combination with other ligands to affect the CD44-positive cells.[13] While paclitaxel alone, as of late, does not cure the cancer, it is effective at extending the survival time of the patients.[11] The ability of human embryonic stem cells to be genetically modified and then transformed into any of the cells of the human body may provide a cell-based strategy to targeting and destroying particularly intractable forms of human cancer such as metastatic breast, lung, prostate, cervical, and pancreatic tumors, points out OncoCytes new CMO, David Jin M.D., Ph.D.

Stem cell transplant In an autologous stem cell transplant, you are your own donor. Your bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells are taken from you (harvested), frozen until needed, then given back to you (transplanted) after you have received high doses of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or both, to destroy your cancer cells. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), the majority of autologous transplants are performed using peripheral blood stem cells; the remaining use bone marrow stem cells or a combination of the two. The allogeneic stem cell transplant is when your bone marrow and immune system are replaced with new, healthy bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells from another

person. Traditionally, most of the allogeneic stem cell transplants have been performed using stem cells collected from the bone marrow, but the use of peripheral blood stem cells is rapidly increasing

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