HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Scientific American Article By The World Expert On Breast Cancer Stem Cells

Barbara2 · 07-19-2006, 07:22 PM

I had a physical yesterday by my family physician, and we got onto the topic of the oncotype DX test. He had not heard much about it and said he would read up on the topic to see how it works.

He remarked that this type of testing and others like it are the start of a new era in cancer, but he strongly felt that many of the answers we're looking for, lie in stem cell research, and until we are free to use these cells, cancer treatment will be delayed or at least not make the advances that it could, if stem cells could be used. He felt that if stem cells could be used in research, in 20 years time we should be able to individually target cancer for everyone.

My understanding of the biology of these cells is very limited, but I understood him to say that these stem cells could be taken from anyone of us and used for research; [not necessarily from a fetus] which currently is the hot topic. So then what is the big (fetus) debate all about if in fact any stem cell could be used??

Barbara

07-19-2006, 07:22 PM	#7
Barbara2 Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: South Dakota. Posts: 621	Stem Cell Research I had a physical yesterday by my family physician, and we got onto the topic of the oncotype DX test. He had not heard much about it and said he would read up on the topic to see how it works. He remarked that this type of testing and others like it are the start of a new era in cancer, but he strongly felt that many of the answers we're looking for, lie in stem cell research, and until we are free to use these cells, cancer treatment will be delayed or at least not make the advances that it could, if stem cells could be used. He felt that if stem cells could be used in research, in 20 years time we should be able to individually target cancer for everyone. My understanding of the biology of these cells is very limited, but I understood him to say that these stem cells could be taken from anyone of us and used for research; [not necessarily from a fetus] which currently is the hot topic. So then what is the big (fetus) debate all about if in fact any stem cell could be used?? Barbara Last edited by Barbara2; 07-19-2006 at 07:30 PM..