Baishali Adak, Dec 26, 2013, DHNS :

Theoretically speaking, the concept of cord blood banking in India has been in circulation for quite some time. Educated and aware city-bred couples, who are expecting, are bound to have considered saving their newborns umbilical cord blood for regenerative and life-saving stem cells, in the past one or two decades. However, the last few years alone have seen a new vigour and assertiveness in the cord blood banking industry in India. Not just have new cord blood banks opened up (mainly branches of existing international ones) but they have also brought some innovative and aggressive marketing strategies with themselves.

Doctors say that now agents of these banks surround unsuspecting couples coming for prenatal checkups and convince them to buy their packages. About a month back, a leading cord blood bank also launched a TV commercial, whereby an expecting woman promises her baby the gift of life (read stem cells for possible future medical use), making many couples wonder if they are depriving their child by not going for it.

What do the doctors recommend?

Dr Meenakshi Sauhta, senior consultant Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Max Hospital, explains, Firstly, one must understand what cord blood banking is and why it is done. The blood in the umbilical cord of a baby, which is usually thrown away as medical waste, is actually rich in primitive stem cells. Stem cells are master cells which can grow into any kind of tissue including bones and blood once re-introduced in the body in the event of a medical problem.

Through research in the past few years, stem cells have been found to be effective in treating no less than 80 conditions ranging from various cancers to genetic and autoimmune disorders. With new trials proving them life-saving even in metabolic, brain and heart-related problems, the horizon is expanding rapidly, making cord blood banking essential day by day.

In US and several European countries, both public and private cord blood banks have existed alongside since the late 90s. In the public cord blood banking system, you voluntarily donate your babys cord blood, which becomes an anonymous property, and can retrieve any matching cord blood sample if required, years later. This is for free.

In the private system, though, you pay anywhere between Rs 22,000 to 1 lakh to store the blood which can be retrieved only by you or with your permission. The contract is for 21 years initially and you then pay annually for the storage depending on market rate. At the moment, only private cord blood banks exist in India.

Dr Venkatesh Ponemone, director, Totipotent RX Centre for Cellular Medicine, Gurgaon, says, Public banks are certainly a better idea but in their absence in India, couples can go for the private banks as well. The beauty of stem cells is that they are a perfect match for the family of a donor as well. Parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins can all use the stem cells if they get a medical condition anytime in future.

Today, worldwide, he adds, Over 25,000 cord blood transfusions are taking place annually. The interesting part is that only about 250 of these are autologous (donor receiving his own blood). The rest are all allogeneic (unrelated donors) or family members of the original patron.

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Banking on stem cells

By Scott M. Lippman

Chemotherapies seek out cancer cells by targeting a fundamental characteristic of cancer cells: their rapid and frequent replication. But in doing so, these drugs can destroy healthy cells that also grow quickly. The result: adverse effects like hair loss and nausea.Worse, the benefits of chemotherapy are frequently short-lived. Seemingly beaten by chemotherapy, a cancer can suddenly return, spreading from its original site to other parts of the body with often catastrophic consequences. Ninety percent of cancer-related deaths are due to metastasis, and almost every cancer can be metastatic.

Why do cancers recur when therapeutic evidence suggests theyve been wiped out? The answer lies in a type of cancer cell with the powerful characteristic of normal stem cells the ability to self-renew or regenerate.

Sott M. Lippman, M.D.

Unlike normal stem cells, however, this ability in cancer stem cells does not turn off.

Cancer stem cells are a relatively new phenomenon to cancer science. Conclusive evidence of their existence was found only in 1994, though in the years since, extraordinary efforts have been made to better understand them in order to destroy them.

Its a daunting task. Cancer stem cells persist in small communities, often tucked away in the deep recesses of bone. They do not divide with dangerous abandon, which would make them easier targets of chemotherapy. In fact, they often lie dormant, essentially invisible until they begin again the process of self-renewal, differentiation and cancer relapse.

Toughest of all, they are very hard to kill, quickly developing resistance to existing drug therapies.

Nonetheless, progress is being made, some of it driven by researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Among them is Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of Stem Cell Research at Moores Cancer Center.

Jamieson has devoted much of her career to deciphering the secrets of cancer stem cells and, more importantly, working to develop effective treatments to rid the body of them. She specializes in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and leukemia.

See original here:
FRONTLINE CANCER: Working to eliminate the cancer stem cells that sustain disease