A Step Towards a Cure for Cancer
Written by Carlos Rendon
Edited by Connie Quan
May 2, 2021
Edited by Connie Quan
May 2, 2021
Evolution is both a blessing and a curse. Just as it has improved the survival of humanity, it has also decreased our life expectancy because cancer continues to evolve along with us. Cancer has been researched extensively, yet there has not been a definitive way to treat it at the moment. Current research is investigating how to deliver anticancer drugs more effectively to tumor cells as a treatment.
One method is the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are uniquely attracted to tumors (Tokyo University of Science, 2020). MSCs could potentially serve as taxis for anti-cancer drugs by transporting them to cancer cells. Previous studies have found that it is difficult to use MSCs for this purpose due to two main reasons. First off, infusing cancer drugs into MSCs causes them to lose their sense of direction. Like a GPS system with no service, the MSCs are no longer able to find the cancer cells. Also, MSCs can only carry a limited amount of drugs, so using them could decrease the effectiveness of a treatment if a higher dose is needed.
However, researchers from Japan have made significant progress in addressing these problems. A solution they found was to use liposomes, which are essentially bags composed of fat cells, to transport an anti-cancer drug called doxorubicin (DOX) to MSCs in mice. The researchers named the combination of DOX and the liposomes “DOX-Lips”.
The results showed that MSCs combined with DOX-Lips were able to locate the mice’s colon cancer cells in a laboratory setting. When trials were conducted on a living mouse with skin and lung cancer, they found that DOX-Lips was able to locate the cancer cells and release the anti-cancer drug. It was observed that tumor growth was stopped in both tests. This technique has the advantage of being much quicker, safer, and more effective than other cancer treatment methods since MSCs can travel to difficult to reach places. For instance, they can access parts of the brain where surgical methods are limited if a tumor is close to a vital structure, and offers a safer alternative to radiation therapy, which can lead to long-lasting side effects.
Although this study is fairly new, it is exciting to think about the future possibility of using MSCs to treat cancer in humans. Cancer is a terrible yet unfortunately common disease, but hope is on the horizon in the search to treat it once and for all.
Works Cited
Brain Tumor: Types of Treatment | Cancer.Net. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2021, from
https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/brain-tumor/types-treatment
Mesenchymal Stem Cells: The “Other” Bone Marrow Stem Cells. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2021,
from https://www.eurostemcell.org/mesenchymal-stem-cells-other-bone-marrow-stem-cells#collapse579
Takayama, Y., Kusamori, K., Tsukimori, C., Shimizu, Y., Hayashi, M., Kiyama, I., … Nishikawa, M.
(2020). Anticancer drug-loaded mesenchymal stem cells for targeted cancer therapy. Journal of Controlled Release. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.10.037
Tokyo University of Science. (2020, December 16). The bull's eye: New modified stem cells can
deliver drugs specifically to tumor cells: Scientists modified 'mesenchymal stem cells' to carry anti-cancer drugs and deliver them to target cancers. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 19, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201216134646.htm