TED NORTHERN CYPRUS COLLEGE / 9-A
The
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Stem Cell Therapy
Rüya YILMAZ
Cancer could easily be considered as the most lethal disease of our time, being the reason for one in six deaths in 2020. But what exactly is cancer? Cancer is a disease that is caused when cells divide uncontrollably and spread into the surrounding tissues. There are many reasons for many types of cancers not having cures yet. Still there are a few that do, one being leukemia. Leukemia is cancer of the body’ s bloodforming tissues, including the bone marrow and the lymphatic system.“ What is that cure?” you may ask. Stem cell therapy! Here’ s how it works. Stem cell therapy which can also be referred to as regenerative medicine, uses stem cells or their derivatives to promote the repair response of diseased, unfunctional or injured tissues. Stem cells are grown in labs by scientists and are manipulated to differentiate into specific types of cells such as blood cells. These specialized cells then can be implanted to a person.
In 1958 Georges Mathé, a French oncologist performed the first stem cell transplantation using bone marrow grafts. Though, then the purpose was to save six nuclear researchers who were exposed to radiation. In the later years, much more research was done. After the early success of his bone marrow transplant therapy; Georges Mathé once again did something that was once deemed impossible: he cured leukemia using bone marrow transplantation in 1969, astonishing the science community. Then the good news is stem cell therapy can not only cure leukemia but it can also cure some types of cancer other than leukemia, Alzheimer’ s disease, Parkinson’ s Disease, brain injuries, strokes and so much more.
I think that stem cell therapy is one of the most important steps taken in the world of biology and it is the future of medicine.