This article explains how blood stem cells are used to replace blood, not 
treat the cancer.  Chemo is what is used to treat cancer not ASCs because 
ASCs can't transdifferentiate.  Add the 3 phony Parkinson claims (Dennis 
Turner, Patricia Payne, Amgen GDNF infusion therapy trial participants) to 
the List and you wonder about the others.   Note the ovarian cancer 
treatment - I had ovarian cancer - how insulting!!!

Rayilyn

Adult Stem Cell Lies - everything old is new again

Posted on: March 14, 2009 10:27 AM, by MarkH
It's come time to lie about science again - this time about the reality of 
embryonic stem cell pluripotency - and some of the old lies are coming back 
out of the storage shed. For instance, Andrew Breitbart on Real Time last 
night, and in a video from (liar for Jesus) Tony Perkins of the Family 
Research Council, I've heard about how adult stem cells have cured or 
treated 72 diseases. Oh and embryonic stem cells, they've cured none. It's 
been a while since we've seen this adult stem cell nonsense.

I had to jog my memory for a minute, I knew this was a lie, but it had been 
so long since I heard it, that I really had to think about where I had heard 
it from. Oh yeah, this nonsense list that was famously cribbed by Ann 
Coulter from a right-to-life group.

To understand the problem with this list and why these citations don't say 
what they think they say, we have to learn a little bit about adult stem 
cells and a big scary word - transdifferentiation. Adult stem cells, which 
exist in many tissues throughout your body, have specific jobs to perform 
for the human body to continue to function. Hematopoietic (blood) stem cells 
make all the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets you need to 
as they are continuously lost or degenerating as part of their natural life 
span. Stem cells in your gut continuously replace the lining of your 
intestines as it wears down from the harsh process of breaking down food. 
There are stem cells that have been isolated from most tissues that function 
as a repair and maintenance pool of cells to keep our organs functional. Not 
all organs have a ready pool of stem cells, and most stem cell populations, 
with the notable exception of blood stem cells, are hard to harvest without 
risking injury to the host.

However, while these cells are great at doing their job, the issue with 
adult stem cell research is, can they do another stem cell's job? That is, 
instead of making just blood, could a hematopoietic stem cell make, say, an 
insulin secreting pancreatic cell? The answer, despite some initial 
promising results around 2001, is no. While hematopoietic stem cells may be 
able to make some other mesenchyme or connective tissue cells from the 
mesodermal germ layer, it doesn't appear that we can make such adult stem 
cells transdifferentiate - or make a type of cell from another embryonic 
germ layer. This ability is what is meant by totipotency. The ability to 
differentiate not just into one of the three major tissue types (mesoderm, 
ectoderm and endoderm), but all three of them.

So, what is up with this list then? They have 72 treatments using adult stem 
cells!

No they don't. This is a lie. They really only are describing one treatment 
in most of these list items. That is, hematopoietic stem cell replacement of 
marrow being used in the course of treatment of many diseases. The 
hematopoietic stem cells are not treating these illnesses, they're letting 
us use chemo, or irradiation, and then replenishing the patient's blood 
supply. In other words, they're doing what a good blood stem cell does, 
replace blood. They're not treating the disease at all.

Let's take a look at some of these references.

Here are the first twelve on the list:
BRAIN TUMORS--medulloblastoma and glioma Dunkel, IJ; "High-dose chemotherapy 
with autologous stem cell rescue for malignant brain tumors"; Cancer Invest. 
18, 492-493; 2000.
Right off the top of the list (you think they'd use a better one to start) 
we have an example of hematopoietic stem cells being used to replace bone 
marrow, not treat the disease! The stem cells are not doing anything for 
brain cancer, they're simply allowing high dose chemo-which injures the 
marrow- to be administered with subsequent auto-transplant of the patient's 
own blood stem cells to recover their blood and immune system
Abrey, LE et al.; "High dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue 
in adults with malignant primary brain tumors"; J. Neurooncol. 44, 147-153; 
Sept., 1999
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
Finlay, JL; "The role of high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue in the 
treatment of malignant brain tumors: a reappraisal"; Pediatr. Transplant 3 
Suppl. 1, 87-95; 1999
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
RETINOBLASTOMA Hertzberg H et al.; "Recurrent disseminated retinoblastoma in 
a 7-year-old girl treated successfully by high-dose chemotherapy and 
CD34-selected autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation"; Bone 
Marrow Transplant 27(6), 653-655; March 2001
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
Dunkel IJ et al.; "Successful treatment of metastatic retinoblastoma"; 
Cancer 89, 2117-2121; Nov 15 2000
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
OVARIAN CANCER Stiff PJ et al.; "High-dose chemotherapy and autologous 
stem-cell transplantation for ovarian cancer: An autologous blood and marrow 
transplant registry report"; Ann. Intern. Med. 133, 504-515; Oct. 3, 2000
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
Schilder, RJ and Shea, TC; "Multiple cycles of high-dose chemotherapy for 
ovarian cancer"; Semin. Oncol. 25, 349-355; June 1998
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
MERKEL CELL CARCINOMA Waldmann V et al.; "Transient complete remission of 
metastasized merkel cell carcinoma by high-dose polychemotherapy and 
autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation"; Br. J. Dermatol. 
143, 837-839; Oct 2000
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
TESTICULAR CANCER Bhatia S et al.; "High-dose chemotherapy as initial 
salvage chemotherapy in patients with relapsed testicular cancer"; J. Clin. 
Oncol. 18, 3346-3351; Oct. 19, 2000
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
LYMPHOMA Tabata M et al.; "Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in 
patients over 65 years old with malignant lymphoma--possibility of early 
completion of chemotherapy and improvement of performance status"; Intern 
Med 40, 471-474; June 2001
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
Josting, A; "Treatment of Primary Progressive Hodgkin's and Aggressive 
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Is There a Chance for Cure?"; J Clin Oncol 18, 
332-339; 2000

See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.
Koizumi M et al.; "Successful treatment of intravascular malignant 
lymphomatosis with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous peripheral blood 
stem cell transplantation"; Bone Marrow Transplant 27, 1101-1103; May 2001
See above. Blood stem cells being used as part of chemotherapy to replace 
blood, not treat the disease.

This list is a lie. They are describing one treatment with adult stem cells 
in these twelve instances, and the rest of the list is more or less the same 
thing. Yes, it is true, since the 1950s we've been using adult stem cell 
therapy. We've been doing bone marrow transplantation (which is really just 
stem cell transplant - nowadays we just mobilize the marrow stem cells into 
the peripheral blood and harvest them there). However, it is dishonest to 
use every instance that bone marrow is transplanted as part of treatment of 
a disease to say that "adult stem cells treat 72 diseases". No! Chemo is 
treating 72 diseases. Bone marrow transplant is treating one disease in all 
twelve of these instances - post-chemotherapy bone marrow suppression. Adult 
stem cells are doing their one thing - differentiating into their destined 
progeny. They are not transdifferentiating into many different cell types, 
with the exception of cord blood which does show some promise in this 
respect.

Further I'm familiar with many of these papers, and many of these papers do 
not represent treatments that are routinely used. Don't get me wrong, 
they're wonderful papers, but many of these treatments have not panned out, 
like injecting hematopoietic stem cells or other adult stem cells into the 
heart. This not being widely implemented because we haven't been able to 
show a great benefit, and the little benefit that has been observed has not 
been from transdifferentiation of the cells into cardiac cells (some cells 
may fuse to existing myocytes and the injected cells are usually only 
transiently present), but some effect of cytokines the cells release in the 
infarct area. Some of the treatments tried on this list are more risky or 
harmful than the disease, as bone marrow transplant is not without 
significant risks and potential for harm to the recipient. They are 
therapies of last resort. Some of them I know have been totally abandoned.

So, of the few on the list that aren't just repetition of bone marrow 
transplant, you have experimental therapies which are just that, 
experimental. None that I see are actually implemented outside of 
experimental protocols. To sum up, the true state of the field is that with 
the exception of hematopoietic stem cell transplant to replace bone marrow, 
adult stem cells are no farther along in application to human disease than 
ES cells are - they are in a purely experimental stage.

Embryonic stem cells are so promising because they don't just make one type 
of cell or cells from one of the three tissue layers. By definition, they 
can make every type of cell in the body. For example, here is an embryoid 
body made of mouse ES cells I filmed in my lab, with a focus of beating 
cardiac cells.

This is functional cardiac tissue generated from completely 
undifferentiated, and infinitely expandable cell line. That is the power of 
ES cells. Not just one stem cell job but all of them.

Now, I agree with some of these jokers that they may have one point to argue 
for their position. As I've said as well, iPSC will likely supplant 
embryonic stem cell therapy as it is a very promising technology that is 
less difficult, less expensive, and solves the immune rejection problem. 
However, it's still a technology in its infancy. We don't know if iPSC are 
truly ES cell like, or will be in every instance. We don't know yet if we 
can make them without oncogenic transformation. We don't know if they'll 
serve the same way ES cells will for basic science research study because of 
the possibility of fundamental differences in genetic or epigenetic 
regulation of the cells.

We just don't know. So, while iPSC have promise, and I believe will 
probably, probably, replace ES cells in the long run, it's simply too early 
to tell for sure. We should pursue all avenues, and that includes ES cells, 
especially considering the objection is based on religious dogma about 
ensoulment, rather than a legitimate ethical concern.

But I'm still left disgusted with these people. Why is it not enough to 
argue this stuff on the merits? Why do they have to lie, and lie, and lie, 
about science? Why isn't the truth part of their moral code, in addition to 
preserving life?

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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