Journal of Stem Cell Research & Therapy

Stem cell based therapies for cancer: Are we there yet?

7^th Annual Conference on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

August 04-05, 2016 Manchester, UK

Khalid Shah

Harvard Medical School, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Stem Cell Res Ther

Abstract:

Stem cell based therapies are emerging as a promising strategy to tackle cancer. Multiple stem cell types have been shown to exhibit inherent tropism towards tumors. Moreover, when engineered to express therapeutic agents, these pathotropic delivery vehicles can effectively target sites of malignancy. Using our recently established invasive, recurrent and resection models of human brain tumors, glioblastomas (GBM) that mimic clinical settings, we show that that engineered human mesenchymal stem cells and neural stem cells expressing novel bi-functional proteins or loaded with oncolytic viruses target both the primary and the invasive tumor deposits and have profound anti tumor effects. These studies demonstrate the strength of employing engineered stem cells and real time imaging of multiple events in preclinical therapeutic tumor models and form the basis for developing novel cell based therapies for cancer. This presentation considers the current status of stem cell based treatments for GBMs and provides a rationale for translating the most promising preclinical studies into the clinic.

Biography :

Email: kshah@mgh.harvard.edu