A Science First: Stem Cells Injected into Woman's Brain

[n2doc]

Submitted by LiveScience Staff
posted: 12 November 2010 01:12 pm ET

A brain cancer patient has become the first person to receive a direct brain injection of stem cells as part of a radical new treatment. That's 10 million neural stem cells, to be exact.

Those millions of injected stem cells should ideally attach themselves to the patient's brain tumors. The patient will then take a non-toxic drug that ends up in her brain, where the drug interacts with a special enzyme contained in the neural stem cells. That mix creates a lethal chemotherapy cocktail for killing the tumors with precision -- at least in theory.

About 23,000 Americans get diagnosed with brain cancer each year, and more than half that number die, according to CBS Evening News. This procedure has been successfully tested in mice, but now physicians must wait months to see whether the first human case pulls through.

http://www.livescience.com/health/etc/101112-stem-cells-injected-into-womans-brain.html

[Warpy]

1. Stem cell therapy is still in its infancy

so things are as likely not to work as they are to work.

Stem cells injected directly into heart, liver and kidneys have produced tumors in some cases rather than repairing the organs.

This is why funding the research is essential at this point. They're learning as much for things that don't work as they are from things that do.

[sakabatou]

2. Maybe stem cells can repair my scars

[Odin2005]

3. I wonder if this could be used to fix cerebral palsy.

My lady friend would love to be able to walk.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Sounds promising

With all the cell phone usage, and with even more to come..this may prove to be an invaluable treatment.