How stem cells help treat cancer

Javier M. ZavalaRise Program

Introduction• This research project is about how we can eradicate

cancerous cells by transplanting stem cells.

• Its important to know and investigate about this problem, because cancer is a common disease that affects a significant amount of the population and there is no cure for it.

• The benefits of the stem cells treatment is an area of science that has not been fully explored, and the scientists believe that this treatment may be the cure for some of the common diseases now days.

Introduction(continue)

• Cancers is a disease caused by the abnormal cell growth in the body's organs and tissues.

• The type of cancer that we will treat with the stem cell transplant is leukemia.

• Leukemia is a cancer of the blood cells.

• Here is an example of a bone marrow smear showing cells from a patient with leukemia.

Hypothesis• The rats, with leukemia, that will be receiving the

chemotherapy to kill the cancerous cells and the stem cells transplant, will be the ones that are not going to have a relapse and will regenerate the white blood cells quicker.

Objectives• I want to prove the method of the stem cells transplant and

see if the white blood cells regenerate quicker than the ones who just used chemotherapy.

Background• Stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular

organisms, that can divide (through mitosis) and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells.

• In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues.

Background(continue)

• In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, repairing adult tissues.

• In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.

• We will be working with the leukemia that affects the white blood cells, which are the cells that protect your body from diseases, and are produced in the bone marrow.

• Some symptoms are fatigue, fever, bleeding and bruising.

Importance• About 40 percent of children and up to 70 percent of adults in

remission from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) will relapse.

• The stem cells transplant is a viable choice to prevent patients of leukemia to relapse.

Methodology• Extract the stem cells before receiving the cancer treatment

(chemotherapy), then the stem cells are frozen.

• It is preferable if the transplant is autologous, which means that the cells are from you, because there is no probability that your immune system will reject the transplanted cells.

• Some centers clean or “purge” the stem cells before they are given back to the patient. This is done to remove any cancer cells that might be mixed in with them. After you get high doses of chemo or radiation the stem cells are thawed and given back to you.

Methodology(continue)

• This experiment will be performed from two to three times to compare the results.

• I will use two rats: control rat (does not receive the stem cells transplant but will receive chemotherapy) and the experimental rat (will receive the stem cells transplant and the chemotherapy).

• The model I will use will be “in vivo”.

Expected results and future studies• My expected results are that the rat that received the stem

cells transplant and the chemotherapy will be the one that regenerates the white blood cells quicker and will have the less probability to relapse.

• If my hypothesis is proven, we can use this method to treat leukemia and regenerate the white blood cells quicker with less chance of getting another disease because of low count of white blood cells.