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The fountain of youth?
I think if researchers can fully understand the signaling pathways that turn a normal cell into a tumor cell, scientists then can use that information to do the opposite and take a step in the other direction to turn the tumor cell, not into a normal cell again because I do not think it would be that easy ,but at least make that cell ineffective to the rest of the body and shut down its production. Even if researches could just keep the tumor in one designated area that would make it a lot easier to treat instead of worrying about cancer spreading. Any information is good information because it may lead to ideas that were not even thought of before.
like David and Jocelyn said it is a great advancement with the endangered species which there is many…once again we will have to see if this advancement in technonlogy and medical field actually occurs which i hope it does.
Another use for this would be research. The tumor initiating cells could be used to replicate the tissue of organs. They may even be able to be used to test medicines. As for immortality, perhaps cells lose their immortality when they differentiate, and their mortality is determined by what kind of cell they become. Because cancer doesn’t care if it’s divided millions of times, it doesn’t lose the immortality. Just a guess.
Cancer makes itself useful at last. Because they are inhibitionally challenged they rapidly divide. This rapid division could be put to use with the healing of large injuries or with the repair of organs. This has some serious setbacks though. Inducing cancer, not exactly a safe thing to do. Unless constantly monitored this poses serious side effects…like death. After the cells divide they then have to ALL be successfully differentiated back into normal, non-cancerous cells. Its just dangerous enough though for the informed patients (and even some uninformed) to reject though.
It seems like every other adult I know is finding out that they have cancer. If we did manage to find a way to manipulate cancer, it could save our population from countless operations and chemo and radiation…
And like Ethan said (and the blog post about growing hearts), we could use cancer cells to grow organs, rather than create tumors. They just need to know when to stop growing.
It’s great that with this new information about differentiation we are closer to curing certain types of cancer. Using the immortality of cancer cells to expand our own life span may backfire.
Stephen I agree with David. The statement you made is a good thought, but if you surround the cells with a hypertonic solution eventually kills the normal and the cancer cells? It would be amazing to take a cancer cell and make it to our own advantage. What if that’s the key to solving cancer, instead of researching, testing, and collecting data on how to stop the cause and production of cancer cells but to instead develop a method where cancer cells could be transformed to help instead of harm the human.
i agree with my peers on this one i think that if we could somehow force them to help instead of hard we would have an amazing tool for good instead of the disease that strikes fear into it’s victoms. we could use it to help people with mucle difficiency or people with liver problems and maybe we could even grow organs for transplants
this research may also lead to many other things maybe if we research this we could cure cancer but we also have to analize the other possiblities if we research cancer cells and find out how to get the “immortality” of the cells maybe we would find a way to create longer life spans for ourselves. of course if we find out how to disable their immortality we could find new ways of fighting it.
I think it truly is amazing that we as a people are becoming so technologically advanced that we could possibly find a cure for cancer. As someone whose life has been affected by cancer the possibilities are truly endless. I find it equally fascinating that we can use something so destructive as cancer to possibly benefit others.
Cool thought Stephen, but I am going to have to almost destroy your thoughts on blowing stuff up inside the body. I think that your idea of making the cells surrounded in a hypotonic solution might kill all the normal cells too. However, it might still be possible. If the density/size/capacity of cancer cell changes in our favor, meaning that they become more fragile than normal cells, then there might be a perfect concentration that would burst cancer cells and not normals cells. But, then again this is a “what if” kinda statement.
stephen says that there has been some good points made. i agree with the hope for the little devils but how? how do we do that? i think it will take alot more than that to change the population levels the question is what? what will change the population density for the better? but i am also in agreement with the hope for the cancer patients which i am very happy to hear 
stephen out
Stephen says that destiny is raising some good questions and who knows whether or not we can turn the cancer cells on themselves. maybe we can turn off the switch. I think that it can’t be and this is why: I am no doctor or scientist by any means but just a thought, I think that they can be turned into a different kind of cell that acts like other cells and shares the same characteristics but i don’t think they can be altered into a fighting cell for lack of a better word, but I also think that a way to find the cure for cancer is not by killing them but by turning them off so to speak or cell desruct. now i am going out on a limb on this one but maybe there is a way that we could blow up the cancer cells by emploding them with fluid. what i mean is if the cell are hypotonic then they will absorb water to their capacity them explode what do yall think about that? stephen out
Well, it seems like most everybody is wondering about the manipulation of cells. I wonder if other cells could be manipulated to attack cancerous cells? If the DNA is just like an “on-off” switch, then why not? In the thousands of little sequences, there has to be something beneficial.
I wonder if we could somehow (in the future) use cancer to our advantage? Somehow manipulate it to do exactly what we want…a cell is just like a big, complicated computer, right? So if we just give it the right html, couldnt we get the expected results? Or…i guess it could turn out bad like on “I am legend,” but that is hollywood.
Stephen says that cancer cells are very advance cells and i agree if we are able to lack of a better phrase “harness the power” of the cancer cells to manipulate them into liver, muscle, or pancreatic cells then we can save lives. i don’t think that there is a limitations to the patients with certain types of cancer cells because although every person is different and reacts to different things i still think that, with a few exceptions maybe, that a liver cell is a liver cell and a muscle cell is a muscle cell and no matter how you manipulate them they will beneficial to all patients. True there are always complications but i think with research itself will find a way to one day harness its power and we will be able to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Stephen out.
Agreeing with David this is wonderful news to cancer patients and the Tazmanian Devils. this will put an end to this species endangeredness. Being able to change pathways of cancer cells is amazing and i’m wondering what new technology will bring in the near future.
Yes, but therein lies the problem. If we had some way to deactivate a cancer cell, well.. we just found a cure for cancer!
I agree with David, that combined with genetic engineering this discovery could have the potential to cure many other diseases, not just cancer. Being able to change signaling pathways in cells is amazing, and using this new information would certainly benefit everyone, not just those afflicted.
I think that David brought up a GREAT point about the Tasmanian Devils! It really brings us back to the idea about diversity within a culture and a species ability to survive. With the new technology with being able to manipulate pathways of cancer cells and tumors is a huge step that our generation has been waiting for. It could open the door for extensive research and provide hope for all those who have none.
It is a primitive study but it could be the start of something great!
I think that maybe messing with the pathways wouldn’t be a good idea, because you can’t be controlling them forever. And how can you make sure that they would be compatible with the rest of your body. And plus, they would always be cancer cells and not normal cells, and even if the problem is temporarily fixed, it could possibly come back because you still have the cancer cells. Maybe if they could control the chemical pathways to tell the cells to not reproduce or kill themselves…
This “immortality” that cancer cells seem to have, I wonder if it’s due the rampant reproduction of a certain gene inherent in cancer cells. Since differentiation requires the control of certain genes, and differentiation does not occur in the cancer cell, it allows for the cell to spread that gene unchecked.
I never would have thought that the cells that started the malignant growth of cancer cells would themselves have that distinct characteristic of normal cells- differentiation.
Just as Isha mentioned, this information is miraculous in itself because what seems to be left now is to figure out why cells STOP differentiating. I think once that’s found, a little more work can negate whatever turns that differentiation switch off.
Cancer cells, if manipulated correctly, could become very useful. If the cells could be forced to differentiate into other cells, like liver cells or muscle cells, it would be extremely beneficial to patients with certain conditions. This being said, the cells would have to have a deactivation type of thing, to make sure that these cells don’t invade the body and take over completely.
These cells look immortal but they are not – they die eventually just like every other cell. I believe it would have to be limited to less invasive, more readily halted types of cancer.
It is truly amazing how we have actually reached a level of scientific research in which we can potentially find a cure for cancer! I don’t think people completely grasp and appreciate how groundbreaking the new skin cell-stem cell research is. Finding a cure is only a matter of time now.
It is certainly amazing that this kind of discovery was made. It seems as if this is the jackpot for cancer patients. Scientists can disable or revert pathways that cause tumor cells. This research may lead to more than just benefits for cancer patients. I think that maybe if you combine genetical engineering and the ability to control pathways, you can cure things such as the tasmanian devil problem. Thier problem was that there was not enough genetic diversity. Well, with this new research, I think it will be possible to cure the disease by somehow mass treating all the Devils. So maybe figure out a way to put medicines in things that they eat or area that they occupy. I also wonder if it is possible to artificially create genetic diversity? Maybe it is possible to create a medicine that alters pathways of gamete cells and then use genetical engineering mess around with genes. This way, it may be possible to make an immnune Devil or at least give birth to immune Devil. This is definetly some amazing research that will hopefully be fully beneficial.
For every new innovation to come about there has to be a beginning. Although, the differentiating trait is only found to be apparent in certain types of cancer, this is just the beginning which could later on (once further research on the cancer stem cells is cemented into place) lead to more types of cancer cells. Just the fact that scientists have made this connection between cancer stem cells and regular stem cells and are make steps towards finding a cure is amazing in itself. I can only hope that they find way to stop these little monsters and stop their so far “immortality”.
If there was a way to block or change the signaling pathway, then we could prevent normal cells from turning into tumor cells. Is there perhaps a way to change potential cancer cells into something else, or modify them so they have a different task? Scientists could apply this to all cells that go through differentiation. Perhaps for other diseases that involve cells, they could change the cells into different types or assign them “jobs.”
This research would obviously help cancer victims, but I beleive that it would greatly benefit others as well. If this research continued, it could be possible to harness the growth (immortality) of these cells and use it to stimulate cell regeneration. This could be used to replenish blood, heal bones, and quicken recovery after a surgury and many other injuries. And the added insight into stem cells could add to this by not only speeding recovery, but having a supply cells for any part of the body.