Day +42

I am fine today.

I came across a very interesting article called "Stem Cells: The Real Culprits of Cancer?" in Scientific American July Edition. You can click on the article title above to gain access to the article. Please let me know if you want the full edition in pdf format. I can email you one.

The article not only provides the possible ways a mutated or malignant stem cell can cause cancer as illustrated in the figure "Possible Paths to Cancer", it also gives us a very good understanding of how the stem cells works in the figure "Hierachy in Blood-forming Cells", the best illustration I ever have so far.

The figure "Cornering Cancer Stem Cells", lists down the discovery of cancer stem cells for various type of cancer chronologically. The cancer stem cell for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia(AML), discovered in 1994, is the earliest discovery of a malignant stem cell.

Further to this, the research team at University of Rochester, led by Craig T. Jordan and Monica L. Guzman discovered a compound from the Feverfew plant called Parthenolide, could cause apoptosis or programmed cell death in AML stem cells, while sparing normal blood stem cells. The research was published in Blood Journal, 1 June, 2005 Issues. You can download the full paper in pdf format here. Anyway, it's too technical for me to understand:-(

Please inform me if you know anyone who plants this Feverfew. I think it is not a bad idea to drink it like Chrysanthemum tea:-)

See you next post.