By Frances Moore


It seems like just a few years ago when antibiotics were hailed as the new miracle drug in the medical field. These days it is just one of many major breakthroughs that were achieved in the intervening years. Doctors are now able to save patients that would most certainly have died just a decade or two ago. Research continues unabated and progress is reported regularly. At stem cell treatment centers, for example, scientists are working on ways in which to use bone marrow transplants to cure many conditions.

Leukemia patients and others suffering from blood related cancer have received bone marrow transplants for some years. In most cases, however, it is done as a last resort. The idea is that the transplant will cause the growth of new bone marrow cells that will produce healthy cells after numerous cells were destroyed by chemo therapy which had an adverse effect upon the immune system.

The misconception that bone marrow transplants are a cure for cancer is quite widespread. It is not a cure for cancer and can at best add some years to the lives of desperately ill patients. However, scientists believe that these transplants will indeed be able to cure many different types of cancer. Research is expensive and sometimes even dangerous, so progress in this field is very slow and positive results are still some years away.

It is not just a cure for cancer that interests researchers in bone marrow transplants. They believe that these transplants have particular promise in the reversing of damage done to brain cells. If they achieve positive results in this area, patients with brain damage or spine damage may be cured. The possibility of reversing the effects of debilitating diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer is also very exciting.

Using bone marrow transplants in order to cure many types of heart disease is also high on the agenda. Once again the hope is that these transplants will cause the growth of new cells inside the damaged heart to replace damaged and destroyed ones. Heart disease is still one of the biggest killers all over the world and progress in this direction will benefit millions of patients.

There is much controversy surrounding the whole field of research into the potential of bone marrow transplants. Critics lambast the fact that the cells being transplanted are taken from the umbilical cords of fetuses. This, they say, will become a major ethical dilemma, opening the door to the abuse of unborn human beings to save the lives of patients that can afford to pay the exorbitant fees charged for transplants.

Critics also accuse researchers of being overly optimistic about the results they hope to achieve. They say that there is absolutely no evidence that bone marrow transplants will become a cure for any disease and that scientists simply use the possibilities as a lure to attract yet more research money. In the process, research in more deserving and promising fields is not funded properly.

While it is too early to say, major breakthroughs in the use of bone marrow transplants to treat and cure many major killer diseases will indeed change the face of medicine forever. Countless people will be saved from needless deaths. It is a matter of wait and see, however.




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