Kamikaze Cells target Cancer Tumor

The idea of a microscopic attack force within your body, seeking out and destroying cancer tumors, sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. But the greatest part of science fiction is that sometimes it’s not too far away from science fact.

As with many of the great medical discoveries of this decade, stem cells are the key. Researchers in Slovakia have recently been able to extract stem cells from human fat tissue and bio-engineer them into these “suicide genes”, or vehicles to transport drugs within the body. Just about everyone has some fat they can spare. So it would seem the tables have finally turned. After years of fighting fat, now the fat is fighting for us.

Suicide Genes

So, you may be taking all of this information with blind faith, or you might be asking the common question: “How the hell does it work?”

Basically, these stem cells repair damaged tissue. The problem is, these cells see cancer cells as damaged as well, so they clump together and make tumours. So, if the stems cells are going to head straight for the tumor anyway, why not strap some weapons to it? (And of course, the weapon in this case is cancer medication.)

But does it work? Well, right now the trials have been limited to mice, engrafted with human colon cancer. Tumor growth was stopped in 68.5% of the test subjects, and none of the mice showed any toxic side effects. While these results are encouraging, Dr. Tytus, a family doctor of more than 20 years, provides a word of caution. “These experiments are intriguing but a lot of work must still be done before it can be prescribed.”

So next time you plan to have a little liposuction, ask them to hold on to some of the fat. (Seriously, they can store it in liquid nitrogen). Because in the future you could have, on hand, a team of cells locked, cocked, and ready to kill. Cancer doesn’t stand a chance.