“In 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 609,640 people will die from the disease”(National Cancer Institute). In the emotion provoking novel, We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach, Eliza Olivi’s father is diagnosed with advanced stage pancreatic cancer when her life is already falling apart due to the announcement of a meteor hurtling toward Earth with a two-thirds chance of obliterating all life.
Unfortunately, scientists and doctors have not found a definite cure, but through displaying the history, current state and future of pursuing research of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which will allow scientists to fix the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) mutations that cause cancer; this will save over half a million people that die from cancer a year and Mr. Olivi.
The report of the meteor Ardor’s inevitable impact with Earth has destroyed the emotions and the motivations of everyone; making daily routines and expectation meaningless. Prior to this announcement, Eliza Olivi’s world is shattered with a single word: cancer. “And after a lab rat’s worth of tests had been administered, the diagnosis was delivered … stage III pancreatic cancer” (Wallach 21). Not only is this pronouncement mortifying and terminal, but it can also be inferred that it took a plethora of long appointments, hours worrying, and uncertain thoughts only making the process more difficult. Families sometimes struggle through this same fate reaching the same prognosis.
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In different areas of the novel when her inner thoughts bring to light, it is apparent that she is struggling with coping with her father’s diagnosis of cancer. Metaphorically, the main theme of the world ending and there only being a one-third chance survival rate is representative of how individuals afflicted with cancer feel when receiving their treatment; their world has a possibility of coming to an end but there is a chance of surviving. Similar to how the world’s populous has no control over whether Ardor crashing to Earth or not, cancer patients cannot one hundred percent predict if their body is able to beneficially respond to their treatment. “. . . he assumed time was some sort of infinite resource… what he’d always assumed was just a bunch of sand turned out to be a million tiny diamonds” (152).
This quote displays that time is often taken for granted and one does not realize its true value until it has the risk of being taken away. Concentration and advancements in this area would allow people to be in control of their precious limited time instead of being inescapably dependent on the whims of a currently incurable disease. Along the same lines, having the ability to give back time thought to have been whisked away to someone who truly understands its meaning would be priceless.
Witnessing this type of struggle makes one wish that there was a way to cure cancer for all those suffering and their loved ones. Furthermore, the sole story of Eliza Olivi leaves one wondering what technology and possibilities are out there to prevent such occurrences in the future. The most recent and evidently most promising of current medicine is that of induced pluripotent stem cell research in which scientists are basically able to erase the mutations that are cancerous and rebuild the cells to be healthy and function properly.
Although the use of induced pluripotent stem cells has been proven to be beneficial through animal clinical trials, its past is riddled with controversy (Britannica). A stem cell is “an undifferentiated cell that can divide to produce some offspring cells that continue as stem cells and some cells that are destined to differentiate (become specialized)”, meaning that it has not yet been given a function in the body like being part of the skin or blood (Britannica).
In their origin, stem cells can divide to become more specialized, by knowing this fact, scientists inferred that stem cells could be taken back to their undecided state in order to be reprogrammed. The importance in being able to do this would be that damaged, defective cells, such as those mutated with cancer, could be replaced with reprogrammed stem cells from a different part of the body. Before researchers are able to take any stem cell and revert it back to its original form, they need to understand how stem cells become specialized.
The best-found process to observe was the development of human embryos. In vitro is when these stem cells become differentiated and are the easiest accessible cells to experiment with to see if they can be programmed for specific functions. However, the way researchers were able to get to embryonic stem cells was with human embryos; this quickly became extremely controversial. Although most programs were using fetuses that were not aborted for the use in scientific research, many American citizens still took offense to their use.
This resulted in funding to be cut in many areas that were pursuing this field of research. One of the most notable successes and proofs of the applicability of this research began was created in July of 1996 with the birth of a lamb named Dolly. This young mammal was incredibly unique because she was created by using embryonic stem cells from an adult sheep; something that was never thought possible before. In continuation, the most incredible details of this experiment is the fact that Dolly is a total clone of the sheep from which the embryonic stem cells were taken.
Although she was not the first cloned mammal, she was one of the longest living ones, she was euthanized in 2003 due to a lung infection unrelated to the cloning (The Roslin Institute “The Life of Dolly’). The importance of this discovery was that it illustrated the possibilities of embryonic stem cells seeing that they could build an entirely new organism. “In 2009 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first clinical trial designed to test a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy”, this was a massive step in their research.
This is only the beginning of development and innovation to come in induced pluripotent stem cell research (Britannica). As of this month, many labs in the United States and internationally have been approved for clinical trials which is a massive step in the direction of application in hospitals. Concurrently with the increase in support through clinical trials, in the twenty years since the initial study much more interest in the subject has been gained which may speed up the availability of this monumental discovery to future generations.
As stated previously, the funding for human embryonic stem cell research was severely cut during the time George W. Bush Jr. was president, but in recent years “. . . public funding has become more readily available and now nearly 400 embryonic stem cell lines are eligible for public funding through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stem Cell Registry” (University of Wisconsin). This breakthrough is substantial in the stem cell research community because now they are able to utilize resources from humans in order to better understand how it works as well as how it may impact the human body long-term. Scientists are now working on deriving induced pluripotent stem cells from the host in order to be used with their own biology for the most successful results.
This would allow cures to be made through a case by case basis, which would make treatment effectiveness rates increase greatly; there would be much less of a chance of people’s bodies rejecting new implantations with the usage of their pre-existing cell anatomy if the puzzle can be solved. “[P]roven therapies based on trading out diseased cells for healthy lab grown [sic] cells remains a clinical aspiration”, as one of the hopes of the University of Wisconsin as well as many other research programs, this is the next step in the innovations of the future (University of Wisconsin).
To conclude, the detrimental impacts of cancer on afflicted with it as well as their families heighten the importance of pursuing further research into the usage of induced pluripotent stem cells. The addition of this situation to the storyline of We All Looked Up is a realistic representation of on a plethora of similar cases. Soon, if the current pace of research and innovations continue, there one day may be a cure with the help of iPS to save all those suffering from cancer whether first hand or through a loved one, to save someone like Eliza’s father.
Works Cited
- “IPS Cells Are Made for the First Time.” Dolly the Sheep, dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/legacy/roundups/ips-cells/index.html.
- “Stem Cells.” Britannica School, Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jul. 2018 school.eb.com/levels/high/article/stem-cell/398729.
- “Twenty Years on, Measuring the Impact of Human Stem Cells.” News, news.wisc.edu/twenty-years-on-measuring-the-impact-of-human-stem-cells/.
- Wallach, Tommy. We All Looked Up. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016.
