Although stem cells may one day prove to be effective treatments against many of the most devastating medical conditions and their use in medicine may become commonplace, a new study reports that several “rogue” stem cell clinics are already making such premature claims about stem cell treatments on their Web sites. These clinics are portraying the therapies they offer as safe, effective, and ready for routine use.

In a report published in the December issue of Cell: Stem Cell, researchers caution that patients should be wary of stem cell clinics that make confident claims about their services without firm medical evidence to back it up, because the existing published research does not support that "overoptimistic" picture.

At least 19 different Web sites offer stem cell therapies at clinics in countries such as China, Mexico, and Russia where there are fewer restrictions on the use of stem cells than in the United States. The Web sites tout treatments for conditions including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, blindness, stroke, and heart attack.

In recent years, desperate patients with such conditions have visited overseas clinics believing them to be their last hope. While a review of published medical studies finds some encouraging evidence for the use of stem cells to treat such conditions, there is not yet any clear evidence of benefit from such treatment, and many studies cite the risk of serious side effects. In addition, the study notes the average cost of a course of such treatment was $21,500, excluding travel and accommodation for patients and care givers.

In the same issue of the journal, a report from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) describes new research guidelines that condemn the marketing of unproven therapies. The society has posted a patient handbook on its Web site to help people who are considering stem cell therapy.

The guidelines say that in limited cases, doctors may be justified in trying an experimental treatment outside of a formal study for small numbers of seriously ill patients. The guidelines recommend standards for that situation, such as approval from a group of experts with no vested interest in the treatment and a commitment by those offering it to proceed to a formal study. Read the complete guidelines in the patient handbook on the ISSCR website. 

If you or someone you know is facing a serious condition that might benefit from stem cells, keep in mind that there are controlled studies being conducted in the Untied States to examine the use of stem cells to treat several diseases. While these studies are usually small, if you meet the criteria for such a study you may be able to receive stem cell treatment for free. Such studies will ultimately help researchers determine if the grand potential of stem cells is real. To find a clinical trial involving stem cells, search Healia Clinical Trials Search for stem cells, or search Healia Clinical Trials Search for a particular disease (e.g. Parkinson’s disease).

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In what could be a major breakthrough for the use of tissue engineered organs, doctors from four European universities report replacing portions of a woman’s trachea (windpipe) with a new trachea made with the woman’s own stem cells. The technique will allow the woman, named Claudia Castillo, to avoid a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs and may also mark a turning point in the quest to grow new organs for use in transplants.

The procedure involved obtaining a donor trachea from a deceased patient, then used a special technique to strip away all the living, cellular material from it leaving behind only a scaffold of non-living connective tissue. The doctors used a sample of Castillo’s bone marrow to obtain adult stem cells then coaxed them to become cartilage-producing cells called chondrocytes. These cells were then used to seed the donor trachea on the outside, allowing the cells to migrate into the donor tissue and take up residence. The researchers used a similar process in order to line the inside of the donor trachea with epithelial cells.

Castillo elected to receive the transplant after a case of tuberculosis destroyed part of her trachea and one of the tubes that connect it to the lungs (bronchus), making it difficult for her to breathe and leaving her prone to infections. Her only other option was to have her lung removed, which would significantly reduce her respiratory capacity. Now, four months after the transplant, the 30 year old patient has near normal respiratory function and is showing no signs of rejecting the transplant.

The doctors believe the same technique might be used to engineer other hollow organs such as the intestine, bladder, or reproductive tract. If so, science will be that much closer to achieving the holy grail of tissue engineering: growing entire new organs in the lab.

To find out more about tuberculosis or other lung diseases, join the Healia Health Community for TB or the Healia Health Community on Lung Diseases.

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Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center released a report last week stating that high-dose chemotherapy (followed by a stem-cell transplant to rebuild the immune system) after surgery may not extend the lives of breast cancer patients. Experts discovered that women who received this aggressive treatment had a few extra cancer-free months, but that they ultimately did not survive any longer than women who never underwent this surgery.

I was surprised by the results. I was expecting some subsets of women to show some survival benefit. Many studies had been suggesting that there were some patients, such as young patients and women with triple negative cancer (cancer cells that lack receptors for estrogen, progesterone or HER2, which makes them difficult to treat with drugs) that would benefit. But our analysis shows that's not true, said Berry. 

The therapy involves multiple steps beginning with the extraction of bone-marrow stem cells from the patient prior to surgery. After the tumor has been removed, the patient is given very high doses of chemotherapy, and then re-infused with their stem cells, which restore immune cells destroyed by the chemotherapy. According to the study, these ultra-high doses of chemo are extremely toxic. Many of the 20,000 women who have received the treatment in the U.S. have died from the toxicity.

The study consisted of 15 trials (6,200 patients) and included women with all types of breast cancer at the beginning stages of disease. Each woman had tested positive for cancer in lymph nodes upon surgery. None of the women in the study had been diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized (spread) to anywhere else in the body.

High-dose chemotherapy was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s when many doctors believed that high doses of chemotherapy was better following cancer surgery. Although it was painful for patients, oncologists believed that high chemo levels would ultimately benefit patients by destroying any cancer cells that could still be in the body.