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Cloning cells to fight cancer

  2. LauraPh
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A man is cancer free after having his cloned defensive cancer cells injected into his body. I never liked the idea of cloning whole animals, etc., but cloning individual cells to fight disease sounds like a good step towards eliminating cancer.
LauraPh

35 responses // Cloning cells to fight cancer

  • I sure this will affend someone But I think it Is a great Idea
    pigmonkey
  • Whats wrong with cloning animals? What would make it anymore "unethical" than cloning single cells?
    Dmitri_Molotov
    2 responses to this
  • LauraPh.... many people gather together to oppose cloning of ALL kinds, and the result is that cloning like THIS don't see the light of day for months or years longer than they should.

    animal cloning may have lots of economic value as well as many risks, but the knowledge learned from the research can spill over into pretty darned nice results like these.

    i get scared when anyone opposes ALL forms of ANYTHING... Jeremy Rifkin is a moron.
    plusaf
  • Why are we not funding this?
    cerealforeal
  • Its about time. In nearly everything in life there are ethical or moral boundaries. Its about having a debate and drawing lines that work for everyone. I don't think Jesus would have stood in the way of this process of curing cancer, he would have been happy to get a break.
    hereandnow
    3 responses to this
  • I doubt if this will ever make it to the NHS
    Jimmy_Underdog
  • I think in instances like this, it is a great idea. Curing Cancer funds has so much money put into it which could be used from any number of other researches.
    mellowmuppet
  • This is big news Laura! You would think it would be all over the news by every news agency in the country. The patient is in Seattle and the story breaks from the UK.
    hookfactor
  • Unfortunately it doesn't work for everyone with that cancer. Only a quarter of the people with this late-stage melanoma cancer.
    hereandnow
    1 response to this
  • Cancer sucks. If cloning cells helps keep folks around, then clone!

    Boo on cancer.
    booksandbud
  • In cases like this I'm for it. After losing both of my parents and others I loved to this insidious, cheating, evil disease, I say if this can cure someone's loved one to give them more time together then do it. Of course, TPTB I am sure would make sure this doesn't see the light of day if it interferes with their profit stream.
    JanforGore
  • Hearandnow raises a great point "Unfortunately it doesn't work for everyone with that cancer. Only a quarter of the people with this late-stage melanoma cancer."

    If hearandnow is correct, it indicates that experiments have been done and maybe even replicated. What does this mean to you and me? That this story is 'old news' (new to us, old to science.) Maybe even to the point that those Health Insurance companies will pay for these treatments.

    Bravo for finding a good solution that may work for 1/4 of these patients. Lets keep funding those research labs to get to the next 75%. And don't tie their hands with stupidity. Ethics, yes. Stupidity, no.
    jahbini
  • Cloning debate over!
    derk
  • that would be great if it was that simple...i would like to know, after all the funding and research was done and its a "go head" to cure SOME ppl's cancer...how much would this "procedure" cost?! Magic Johnson income perhaps...hmmm
    street_smart
    1 response to this
  • That's what we have insurance for... oh wait. I forgot that insurance companies are mostly out to make a profit even if it means screwing the customer.
    Varex_Sythe
  • Those cells were NOT cloned, they were grown. Furthermore, this happened a couple of years ago, and among many subjects who received this experimental treatment, his is the only case in which the cancer was cured.
    Vierotchka
  • Clone away
    I dont see anything wrong with it
    Ice_cream_Man
  • http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14168-cancer-pati...
    Click on the link to reach an informed and reliable source, wherein it is clearly said that the cells were grown in a laboratory, not cloned. Cloned cells need to be cloned individually - even in two months with a huge staff, a laboratory could not possibly produce five billion cloned cells.
    Vierotchka
  • well, the original link came up with errors, but this one seems to work...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/...

    a drill-down link,
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1527746/Gene-therapy-cu...
    also has some promising news.

    "The treatment relies on the body's protective immune system, in this case a type of white blood cell, or lymphocyte, called a T-cell. Although they attack tumours, these alone are no match for an aggressive cancer.

    Dr Rosenberg created billions of T-cells by removing the patients' cells and modifying them so they developed a certain receptor, a protein that helps them to recognise and kill tumours.

    Genetically engineered cells were transfused into 17 patients with advanced metastatic melanoma, where the disease had spread.

    The study shows that the engineered cells can shrink large tumours.

    Dr Rosenberg has found a more potent class of receptors, up to 100 times more effective at helping immune cells attack the cancer. His team has also engineered immune cells to attack breast, lung and liver cancers.

    "We have now expressed other lymphocyte receptors that recognise breast, lung, and other cancers," he said. "They are present on half of all common cancers.

    "We can, with these powerful receptors, convert any patient's normal cells into cells that will recognise these common cancers."

    Trials will start within a month, subject to approval by the US authorities, though Dr Rosenberg did not want to identify which cancer types would be involved."

    AND the time-stamp is January 9, 2006.


    at first, everything is "expensive."

    if something is GOOD and POPULAR, the price often drops... :))))) "expensive" is not a good reason to slow development work on something.
    plusaf
  • A other great step for the global elite (cause they will be the only one able to afford it.
    Skut
  • The headline should read "Attack of the Clones!"
    dbocaz
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    This shows you that any science and technology can be used for good (as well as evil). It's in our hands to use any discovery wisely.
    dbocaz
  • This is really great. I'm glad that we're finally able to see tangible benefits from such a widely controversial practice.
    terrific
  • BTW: immuno-therapy (enhancing the bodies own defense system) has been practiced in Europe for over 30 years. That's why I'm here today to make these sarcastic remarks. PLUS:This was done at Cancer Research UK which is a non-profit org under a socialist health care system. Strangely a non-profit in Seattle, WA did this 2 years ago cloning T-cells. So far for profit corporations are doing i don't know what.
    tomofnorthcal
  • this is awesome! we need to do this alot more (follow in Europe's footsteps) but do it without people freaking out about cloning cells. I agree with the cloning animals argument but disagreeing with saving a man from cancer is stupid
    MRprez
  • Until the debate moves from hypothesis to actual in you or your family's life your frame of reference is very wide. You can make grand assumptions and draw textbook or popular conclusion. The moment you face the loss of a loved one your that outlook narrows and you focus on doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to heal your loved one.
    Buie
  • Come on democrats... I'm putting my money in stem cell research before the election!
    slamber
  • that's good news. i like.
    innocent_criminal

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