[Medical Torture]

Report: Fetal stem cells trigger tumors in ill boy

What the fuck people!? How can anyone think that injecting your little boy, who is prone to cancers and a degenerative disease affecting the cerebellum, with stem cells from MULTIPLE FETUSES mixed with growth hormones, is going to help him!?

Don't you think you would expect wild, unchecked growth from cells with unlimited developmental potential?!

That kid's parents deserve to grow tumors.

_____YAHOO!News Article______
Report: Fetal stem cells trigger tumors in ill boy

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Tue Feb 17, 8:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A family desperate to save a child from a lethal brain disease sought highly experimental injections of fetal stem cells — injections that triggered tumors in the boy's brain and spinal cord, Israeli scientists reported Tuesday.

Scientists are furiously trying to harness different types of stem cells — the building blocks for other cells in the body — to regrow damaged tissues and thus treat devastating diseases. But for all the promise, researchers have long warned that they must learn to control newly injected stem cells so they don't grow where they shouldn't, and small studies in people are only just beginning.

Tuesday's report in the journal PLoS Medicine is the first documented case of a human brain tumor — albeit a benign, slow-growing one — after fetal stem cell therapy, and hammers home the need for careful research. The journal is published by the Public Library of Science.

"Patients, please beware," said Dr. John Gearhart, a stem cell scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who wasn't involved in the Israeli boy's care but who sees similarly desperate U.S. patients head abroad to clinics that offer unproven stem cell injections.

"Cells are not drugs. They can misbehave in so many different ways, it just is going to take a good deal of time" to prove how best to pursue the potential therapy, Gearhart said.

The unidentified Israeli boy has a rare, fatal genetic disease with a tongue-twisting name — ataxia telangiectasia, or A-T. Degeneration of a certain brain region gradually robs these children of movement. Plus, a faulty immune system leads to frequent infections and cancers. Most die in their teens or early 20s.

Israeli doctors pieced together the child's history: When he was 9, the family traveled to Russia, to a Moscow clinic that provided injections of neural stem cells from fetuses — immature cells destined to grow into a main type of brain cells. The cells were injected into his brain and spinal cord twice more, at ages 10 and 12.

Back home in Israel at age 13, the boy's A-T was severe enough to require that he use a wheelchair when he also began complaining of headaches. Tests at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv uncovered a growth pushing on his brain stem and a second on his spinal cord. Surgeons removed the spinal cord mass when the boy was 14, in 2006 and they say his general condition has remained stable since then.

But was the boy prone to tumors anyway or were the fetal stem cells to blame? A Tel Aviv University team extensively tested the tumor tissue and concluded it was the fetal cells. Among other evidence, some of the cells were female and had two normal copies of the gene that causes A-T — although that boy's underlying poor immune function could have allowed the growths to take hold.

Using stem cells from multiple fetuses that also were mixed with growth-spurring compounds "may have created a high-risk situation where abnormal growth of more than one cell occurred," wrote lead researcher Dr. Ninette Amariglio of Sheba Medical. She urged better research to "maximize the potential benefits of regenerative medicine while minimizing the risks."

This brain disease wasn't conducive to stem cell therapy in the first place, said stem cell specialist Dr. Marius Wernig of Stanford University, who said it's unclear exactly what was implanted.

"Stem cell transplantations have a humongous potential," Wernig said. But "if people rush out there without really knowing what they're doing ... that really backfires and can bring this whole field to a halt."
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I think being back in a biopsych course has re-piqued my interests.

Accuracy, Efficacy And Ethics Of Abstinence-only Programs Questioned By Public Health Experts

Accuracy, Efficacy And Ethics Of Abstinence-only Programs Questioned By Public Health Experts

thank god i got comprehensive sexual health education.

[what a novel medium for a short story]

Nishere.com: Stephen King's "N." - An original video series

i actually shelled out the $3.99 to buy the series on iTunes!

i've never gotten into Stephen King's impressive body of novel work. the first book i read from him was Skeleton Crew. The Mist was an awesome novella that was recently made into a respectable book-to-movie movie.

SK seems to have a nice gift for writing short stories, fighting the word bloat and keeping them self-contained. N will make its debut on 11/11 this year in his new book of short stories "Just After Sunset" (not that i'm advertising) but the online graphic novel webisodes are extremely satisfying. they remind me a lot of the animated graphic shorts on the I am Legend dvd, awesome.

i guess i should always expect a monster in any Stephen King work, but that's why i like his shorts so much better. he really has to focus the work and a lot of times, he is successful in using the monster (and on a larger scale, the short itself) as a vehicle to explore some human phenomenon

there was one random instance in which a giggle escaped my lips.
episode 15 "can a research project lead to depression? to suicide?"
haha, apparently Stephen King was never an undergraduate psychology student scrambling to put together an honors thesis

try the web series prequel to Robin Cook's Foreign Body on bordersmedia.com too. i'm really intrigued at how much can be conveyed in 2min clips

[Wherein I feel sorry for men]

I feel sorry for the boys at my work place. They are constantly surrounded by beautiful women with great personalities. Those girls love to chat and laugh. So there they are, surrounded by women not only imbued with great beauty but also a sense of fun and camaraderie. Joking around with them and acquiescing to requests that start with "I need a big strong man" (said in a lilting, come-hither voice) and ending with the opening of jars.

Hang in there guys, and hope that you are not around when the crazy comes out of those girls

Beauty bias is kind of an interest to me, so I guess its an option if drugs don't pan out huh

[i love hot actors who play tortured and conflicted, tough guy characters]

christian bale - the machinist, the prestige, equilibrium, dark knight
hugh jackman - the fountain, x-men movie series,
viggo mortensen - eastern promises, lord of the rings trilogy
heath ledger - dark knight , 10 things i hate about you, brokeback (yes, i went there)
daniel craig - bond
jason statham - transporter 2 (i'll get around to watching the first one someday)
bruce willis - fifth element duh
edward norton - fight club
aaron eckhart - dark knight (he really surprised me, i always thought of him as insignificant before)

i just love them for the characters they play, they can make my brain go "durr" and my panties hit to the floor

huh, i just realized what strong a showing dark knight put out