New Research: Stem Cell Treatments For Brain Tumour Patients

Despite receiving timely treatments, a number of brain tumour patients don't survive more than a year. Doctors are of the view that the treatments available at present followed by chemo or radiotherapy fail to completely eliminating the tumour.

Dr. Khalid Shah, who heads the research at Harvard Medical School says, "We take the bone marrow stem cells from the patient and then genetically engineer it with drugs. These cells then release therapeutic proteins to kill the tumour'' Dr Khalid Shah also addressed neurologists at Max Healthcare.

Dr Khalid has been working on genetically engineered stem cells for the past seven years. He says stem cells are treated with different molecules depending upon the type of tumour. The treated cells can destroy the tumour in three ways: Stop the proliferation of cancerous cells, effectively kill the defective cells and stop the blood supply to the tumour.

"We first get the biopsy of the tumour done and depending on the molecular profiling of the tumour, we decide the molecule with which it needs to be engineered. It often takes 20-25 days to engineer the stem cells,'' said Dr Khalid.

Neurologists in India say the prognosis of brain tumour patients is very poor. Most patients often succumb to the disease within a year of treatment. Dr Shakir Hussain, head of the department, Neurology at Max Healthcare says, "If we can increase their life expectancy by two-four years and improve their quality of life, it is a big achievement,''

Dr Khalid intends to commence human trials by encouraging results in the animal studies. Talking about the side-effects of stem cells, Dr Khalid said, "In brain tumour patients, our first aim is to increase their life expectancy. We are not bothered about the side-effects at this stage,''

According to sources, Max Healthcare will soon be a part of the human trial for the genetically engineered stem cells, if everything goes as per existing strategies. Dr Hussain added, "We would like to be part of this trial as we have the necessary infrastructure,''