Stem Cell-Engineered Windpipe for Cancer Patients
While transplants successful, experts say technique still not a proven therapy.
Aug. 2, 2010— -- Doctors in Italy announced they have used patients' own stem cells to grow trachea tissue that led to seemingly successful transplanted windpipes in two patients diagnosed with trachea cancer.
Doctors regenerated tissue from the patients' nose and bone marrow stem cells to create tracheas biologically identical to the patients' original organs. Both patients underwent the transplant in early July and were released from the hospital just weeks after the surgery, according to the Associated Press.
One of the patients was able to speak again only a few days after the surgery, said Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, professor of surgery at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the head surgeon in the cases.
"They are back to the home, able to speak, able to socialize with everybody," Giovannini told the Associated Press. "Having this quality of life is wonderful."
According to Dr. Mark Iannettoni, head of the department of cardiothoracic surgery at University of Iowa, a trachea is a fragile organ because it is mostly cartilage, which has a poor blood supply.
"Once damaged, it is difficult to get it to heal correctly," said Iannettoni.
Trachea cancer is resistant to chemotherapy and radiation and attempts to replace the trachea with mechanical devices have not been effective.
However, Dr. Eric Lambright, surgical director of lung transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said that using a patient's own stem cells not only could help to rebuild the fragile tissue, but also potentially could bypass the risk of having the organ rejected.
"These patients [are] otherwise sentenced to rather significant horrible quality of life related to their tumors and ... heroic measures may indeed be very appropriate," said Lambright.
According to Macchiarini, the team collected stem cells from the patients' nose and bone marrow, and grew two different types of tissues from the cells that resembled the different surfaces of the trachea. The tissues covered the outer and inner linings of the donor trachea.
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