I confess.

I hadcancer.

And stemcells might be to blame!

At therelatively young age of 42, I was diagnosed with what is supposed to be anolder man’s disease: prostate cancer.

How couldthis happen to me?  It is probably thefault of stem cells, I figure.

No, I don’tmean some rogue stem cells created in my own lab that attacked me, but rather I’mtalking about my own perhaps slightly imperfect stem cells that might have gonerogue.

You seescientists are realizing that for many, but not all cancers, a unique type ofstem cell called a “cancer stem cell” might be to blame.

As we live,our cells are not simply sitting there, even if we are. They are doing stufflike making our hearts beat, our minds think (at least some of us), and soon.  For some if not almost all tissuesof our bodies, cells have to be replaced and stem cells make this happen.

Think ofsubs in a football game.

In fact someof our cells get pretty beaten up doing their jobs. Imagine a quarterback whohas just been steamrolled by a 350 lb. linebacker. That happens to some of ourcells too, except instead of a linebacker it might be radiation from the worldwe live in, or a free radical molecule generated in our bodies, or some othercellular linebacker.

And stemcells are like the quarterbacks of our bodies. They direct much of what goeson. If they get hurt, we could in trouble. A lot of quarterbacks getconcussions, a condition that these days we are realizing can have serious long-termhealth consequences including brain damage. For a cell, its brain is itsnucleus, where its precious DNA is tucked away. Most often when stem cells getinjured, they suffer damage to their brain, to their nucleus in the form ofmutations.

The problemwith damaged stem cells is more complicated, interesting, and dangerous thanyou might think first hand. Because you see, when a stem cell suffers braindamage in the form of a mutation, sometimes it is not just out of commission(i.e. dead). You do not always simply lose this valuable cell. Sometimes, thereare worse consequences.

Imagine in afootball game if your star quarterback gets hammered and has to leave thechampionship game. That’s horrible, right?

‘What couldbe worse?’, you think. I’ll tell you.

Imagine yourquarterback gets his clock cleaned, but instead of leaving the game he secretlystarts helping the other team. Throwing interceptions, fumbling, tripping hisown players….that is far worse than him leaving the game.

The samekind of thing can happen inside of us with our stem cells. When damaged,sometimes they do not leave the game (undergo apoptosis), but go on to playagainst us as cancer stem cells. It is the ultimate betrayal because the newgoal for them is nothing short of killing us.

These extremeBenedict Arnolds, cancer stem cells, play a role in many cases of prostatecancer so I wonder -- might they be to blame for my cancer? Wouldn’t that beironic if I, as a cancer and stem cell biologist, got cancer because my stemcells turned against me?  

Think AnakinSkywalker turning into Darth Vader.

That’s oneof the problems with stem cells. They are so powerful that if they do turn tothe dark side, we are in trouble.

Admittingpublicly that I have cancer is a risk for me. People do view you differentlywhen you have had a major illness such as cancer, but for the most part, I’vegotten very positive support from both the scientific and non-scientificcommunities that I am part of these days. I think part of the reason is thatcancer touches everyone in one way or another. If you want to read more aboutmy experiences as a cancer scientist turned cancer patient and cancer survivor,you can read some of blog entries here and here.

Of course Idon’t know that stem cells had anything to do with me getting cancer. In fact Ihope they didn’t.

But I’llnever know of course.