cell therapy

Cell therapy treats disease by putting living cells into the body to repair or replace function that has been lost. Instead of a chemical drug that washes through and fades, the treatment is the cells themselves — a living drug that can settle in, multiply, respond to its surroundings, and keep working. It is closer to planting seeds than to taking a pill.

The cells may be the patient's own, harvested and sometimes grown or modified before being returned, or they may come from a donor. Once delivered, they aim to do a job the body no longer can: rebuild blood, replace damaged tissue, or hunt down disease. Because they are alive, they can do things no static drug or device can — but they are also harder to control and standardize.

Some cell therapies are long-established medicine, such as the bone-marrow (blood stem cell) transplants used for certain blood cancers. Others are still experimental. The honest picture is a real and growing toolkit alongside many promising but unproven approaches, especially those marketed directly to patients.