On World Cancer Day, we tell you what types can be treated with stem cells

World Cancer Day is celebrated every 4th of February. It was created by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness about oncology diseases, their risk factors and the application of prevention and control strategies.

With scientific advances, radiotherapy treatment is not the only one possible. Recent research has been successful through the use of umbilical cord blood stem cells, with the ability to regenerate and effective to treat certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.

According to the Argentine Association of Clinical Oncology (AAOC), Argentina is one of the medium-high incidence countries, with more than 217 new cases per year per 100,000 population. It is therefore the second leading cause of death in the country after cardiovascular disease.

Although there are many types of cancer and some are preventable by minimizing risk factors, such as skin cancer, there are many other lesser known ones. In this sense, the scientific community is constantly studying new treatments compatible with patients and this is the last time that stem cells have gained ground as a possible support in certain oncological diseases.

In 2001, the first autologous umbilical cord blood transplant was performed in a child with oncological disease. The stem cells present in the umbilical cord blood have the particularity of possessing a proven regenerative potential, an anti-inflammatory power and generating new cells.

"Its extraction is performed safely at the time of delivery and this sample is cryopreserved in a nitrogen thermos at -196 °, so that the collected genetic material lasts forever, being fully compatible with the Child and possibility that 25% are compatible with their siblings, "says Dr. Diego Fernández Sbado, pediatrician hematologist (MN 82733) and president of ABC Cordón, the badociation of stem cell banks, which groups together entities performing this procedure.

Since 1988, when the first transplant was successfully performed in a patient with Fanconi anemia using umbilical cord blood cells from a compatible sibling, umbilical cord blood has become an alternative source of cells for performing transplants. bone marrow. In the United States, almost as many grafts are done with cord cells as bone marrow cells.

Types of cancer that can be treated with stem cells include:

– bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma, plasma cell leukemia, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia),
– Neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that affects infants and young children.
– Some acute leukemias

The field of stem cell research continues to grow. "In science, it's more what we do not know about the human body than what we know." When we talk about "stem cells," we refer to them as if it's a type of single cell, but the truth is that there are more and more varieties that are beginning to surprise us.Research on pathologies such as diabetes, heart disease or neurological changes the traditional paradigm of "the" cell mother as a type of cell with little capacity, "concluded ABC Cordón's president.

DSA