Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Stem cell for liver regeneration


Liver regenerates naturally.   People can surgically remove 1/2 of liver and still be ok.  However, Breast cancer has the nasty habit of dispersing itself like dandalions across liver.   Some people who has big liver or total liver involvement will face high mortality risks if you cut more than 2/3 of liver.   And cancer patients are not eligible for liver transplant anyway.
Enter stem cell technology to allow entire organs to regenerate.  It's preclinical.   But it will be coming:
http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2010/Researchers_Engineer_Miniature_Human_Livers_in_the_Lab.htm
Even if that is not an option, one can potentially inject stem cells into liver to speed up the regeneration process and reduce mortality risk and hence expand the usage of hepatic resection for metastatic breast cancer patients.
These technologies are improving from all over the world.  China/Germany/Japan are places to watch.    But be careful to sign up with any clinic who claims they already know how to do it.   Whatever they know and can do, should be reproducable by other labs/hospitals across the world.
Nobody knows for sure, that's why we need clinical trials, we need international effort for data sharing and trustworthy data.   Patients need to demand newer techniques and fund basic/translational research.

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