Stem Cell Innovation At Risk In UK, Studies Find

ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2009) — Despite great hopes for stem cell therapy, major structural and cultural changes within the National Health Service (NHS) are needed if it is to succeed in the UK. Currently the chances of getting effective treatments into routine use in the short-term are small and the industry is at serious risk of ‘market failure’.

These are the findings of two major studies into the commercialisation and adoption of stem cell therapy carried out by researchers at The University of Nottingham.

Dr Paul Martin, from the Institute of Science and Society said: “While the government has identified regenerative medicine as a national priority and the US has lifted its ban on stem cell therapy, urgent public policy action is needed if it is to become a reality. Although cell therapy is now established as an important branch of medicine, innovative firms struggle to make money, putting the UK industry in a very vulnerable position in the short term. Unless the situation changes the industry will contract and the progress needed to develop important cell therapies will be adversely affected.”

via Stem Cell Innovation At Risk In UK, Studies Find.

Stem Cell Research Helps Saves Diabetes Patient’s Leg From Amputation | Adult Stem Cell Research

Stem Cell Research Saves Diabetes Patient’s Leg From Amputation

Posted 6 April, 2009 in Peripheral Artery Disease |

Victory for Adult Stem Cell Research- Saves a Man’s Leg

Tom Fisher already had his right leg amputated due to complications from Diabetes and he was in danger of losing his left leg as well. However, stem cell research in the form of Adult Stem Cells has saved his leg from amputation and have healed all his ulcers and infections and gangrene bringing back his leg to 94% normal.

Stem Cell Therapy- Clinical Trial in Charleston, South Carolina

Fisher, 84 years old was treated at Roper Hospital in South Carolina where there is an ongoing randomized stem cell research trial for a stem-cell therapy to treat critical limb ischemia, a result of Peripheral Artery Disease.

From the stem cell news article:

“That was astounding,” said Dr. Jeb Hallett, medical director at the Roper St. Francis Heart and Vascular Center. “The results have been amazing.”

Of the nine area patients participating, seven still have their limbs, Hallett said.

Approximately 70-80% Success in Saving a Leg

The trial is sponsored by Harvest Technologies, a stem cell research company in Massachusetts who are also sponsoring similar studies in India and Europe.  According to Dr. Hallett, 87.5% of the Indian patients were able to keep their legs while in Europe, the results are 70% were able to keep their legs.

Without stem cell treatment, in similar cases of Peripheral Artery Disease, 80% LOSE their legs.  So, a 70-80% success rate for this Adult Stem Cell treatment is wonderful.

Stem Cell Treatment Before Pigs Fly?

What is not so wonderful is the results of the trial are not due until 2012.  Only 3-4 more years?? Are you serious?  Can’t we wait longer to use our own stem cells to heal ourselves?

Medicare is very interested in this as the price of stem cell treatment is cheaper than that of an angioplasty or bypass and thus would save them millions of dollars if approved by the FDA.

So if I understand correctly:

1. the stem cell treatment is cheaper than other alternatives (angioplasty or bypass) for Peripheral Artery Disease,
2. the therapy is safer and less invasive (just simple injections using a syringe of stem cells into the legs),
3. it has no side effects because it uses your own Adult Stem Cells,
4. and is probably 60-70% more effective than any other intervention— but it won’t be available for at least 4 more years (and that is being very optimistic).

Think how many legs will be lost in that time.  Way to Go FDA- your silly rules of treating a person’s own stem cells as a drug is costing lives and limbs.

Other People Helped by Adult Stem Cells for their Peripheral Artery Disease

Stem Cells for Peripheral Artery Disease

via Stem Cell Research Helps Saves Diabetes Patient’s Leg From Amputation | Adult Stem Cell Research.

Law of Magnetism DOES NOT WORK in the US

1. Adult stem cells are relatively smart and will go to their “designated organ” and repair what needs repairing (some “spilling” occurs).
2. Nano technology will make them Einstein-ian.
3. And magnets will control where they go like the slot cars I used to have as a kid.

So, the bottom line is…

you can get stem cells to go ANYWHERE YOU NEED THEM in the human body…

except for

INTO A PATIENT THAT NEEDS THEM IN THE US!

Sorry Farrah. Tough luck. -dg

Bone-repairing stem cell jab hope

Page last updated at 12:39 GMT, Monday, 6 April 2009 13:39 UK

By Michelle Roberts

It may be possible to control stem cells with a magnet

Doctors may soon be able to patch up damaged bones and joints anywhere in the body with a simple shot in the arm.

A team at Keele University is testing injectible stem cells that they say they can control with a magnet.

Once injected these immature cells can be guided to precisely where their help is needed and encouraged to grow new cartilage and bone, work on mice shows.

The aim is to treat patients with injuries and arthritis the UK National Stem Cell Network conference heard.

The ultimate aim is to repair cartilage and bone

Professor Alicia El Haj

Keele University

Professor Alicia El Haj, working with Professor John Dobson, also of Keele University, says the technology, patented by Magnecell, could be tested in humans within five years.

It would provide a way to treat disease without invasive surgery or powerful drugs.

The injection would use the patient’s own stem cells, harvested from their bone marrow.

These mesenchymal cells would be treated in the lab to give them a coating of minute magnetic particles.

Use in scans

These same magnetic nanoparticles are already approved in the US where they are routinely used as an agent to make MRI scans clearer to read.

Targeted magnetic fields could then move the cells around the body to the desired place and switch them into action without the need for drugs or other biochemical triggers.

Professor Al Haj said: “The ultimate aim is to repair cartilage and bone. We have been able to grow new bone in mice. Now we will look at whether we can repair damaged sites in goats.

“We should be able to move to human trials within five years.”

Meanwhile, experts at the University of Southampton, led by Professor Richard Oreffo, have treated four patients with hip joint problems using stem cell therapy.

The technique combines the patients own bone marrow stem cells with donor bone cells to patch-repair damaged bones that would otherwise need treatment with metal plates and pins.

They say it is only a matter of years before their method could be used routinely to treat some of the 60,000 people who fracture a hip in the UK each year.

via BBC NEWS | Health | Bone-repairing stem cell jab hope.

Farrah Fawcett has slipped into a coma

Farah Fawcett has always been a hero of mine.  From her antics as an Angel which I watched with pre-teen glee to her outspoken advocacy for under-represented causes like her role in “The Burning Bed” which garnered her an Emmy Nomination.  Flying to Germany is never a cake walk and I can’t imagine having to do it while in late stage rectal cancer.

I wish she could have gone to the Los Angeles Hospital for Advanced Stem Cell Application (LAHASCA)…but no such place exists.  She was always pushing the envelop and I applaud her setting an example and going to Germany for stem cells that are not available in the US.

Such a shame that someone loved by so many and with the financial means and the knowledge of what was required, had to leave the country to get medical treatment.

Sending strength. – dg

According to several resources, Farrah Fawcett has been in hospital for day in the Los Angeles area, where she has reportedly slipped into unconsciousness and dying of cancer. According to several resources, Farrah Fawcett has been in hospital since Thursday, where she has reportedly slipped into unconsciousness and dying of cancer.

The 62-year-old was diagnosed with anal cancer three years ago. Though in 2007 she joyously declared that it was in remission, a malignant polyp re-emerged in the same spot just a few months later. She recently returned from Germany, where she could legally get controversial embryonic stem cell treatments.

Farrah had been filming her fight versus the potentially deadly disease for a TV series called ‘A Wing and Prayer’ and wants other people to learn from her experience with living with the illness.

The 24-year-old son of acting couple Ryan O’Neal and Farrah Fawcett pleaded innocent to drug charges last month in a separate case involving his father. Redmond and Ryan O’Neal were arrested after police allegedly discovered methamphetamines in their house after a routine probation visit, stemming from Redmond’s previous drug conviction. The elder O’Neal has since pleaded guilty to felony drug possession and was ordered to join an 18-month drug deferment program.

And as if things couldn’t get worse for the family, Ryan Redmond was driving a friend to visit an inmate at the Pitchess Detention Center South when they were stopped around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday at a routine security checkpoint.

The police have arrested him on charges of possessing a controlled substance, and bringing narcotics into a secured jail facility.

He remains behind bars after his bail was set at 25,000 dollars, reports Contactmusic.

via Farrah Fawcett has slipped into a coma « eFitnessNow.

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Groundbreaking Stem cell therapy Phase II trial on damage heart tissue treatment

This is great news also…

but they have been treating MI with adult stem cells successfully in thailand, germany, china for almost 10 yrs now.  Catch UP! -dg

On March 30, Dr. Roger Gammon, a cardiologist with Austin Heart cardiology group treated the first patient in the world( a 58-year-old Central Texas man) enrolled in a groundbreaking Phase II study. It is one of the nation’s first hospitals to test the new therapy.

The stem cell treatment is administered intravenously and typically takes less than an hour to complete.

The Austin Heart Hospital is one of the 40 hospitals in the nation to conduct this groundbreaking adult stem cell trial, and they are excited enough to lead the way in this important research.

The aim of the study is to test the effectiveness and safety of  administering adult stem cells intravenously to repair damaged heart tissue after a heart attack.

patients are injected with donated adult stem cells from the bone marrow of others. The stems cells are purified by Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., which markets them as a product called Prochymal.

Prochymal is being evaluated for its ability to treat heart damage caused by a heart attack. The active ingredient in the new treatment is adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs).  MSCs have the ability to develop into other types of cells and generate new tissue, including heart muscle.

Patients who are interested to participate in the study must receive the treatment within seven days of a heart attack.

Source: FoxBusiness

via Stem Cell Research Blog » Groundbreaking Stem cell therapy Phase II trial on damage heart tissue treatment.

Medical News: ACC: Stem Cell Treatment May Help Repair MI Damage – in Meeting Coverage, ACC from MedPage Today

This is great news from my alma mater…but they have been treating MI with adult stem cells successfully in thailand, germany, china for almost 10 yrs now.  Catch UP! -dg

ACC: Stem Cell Treatment May Help Repair MI Damage

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today, Published: April 02, 2009

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Earn CME/CE credit

ORLANDO, April 2 — An infusion of autologous bone marrow progenitor cells may improve outcomes for patients who suffer a severe myocardial infarction, a phase I study suggested.

Action Points:

* Explain to interested patients that the findings come from a phase I study, which is designed to assess safety and feasibility, not efficacy.

* Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented as a poster at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Patients who received the highest doses of enriched CD34+ endothelial progenitor cells in the affected vessel had increased perfusion of the infarct at six months (P=0.01), according to Arshed Quyyumi, M.D., of Emory University in Atlanta.

This is the first study to find a dose response when using enriched progenitor cells to repair damage following an MI severe enough to cause ventricular remodeling, he said at the American College of Cardiology meeting here…

via Medical News: ACC: Stem Cell Treatment May Help Repair MI Damage – in Meeting Coverage, ACC from MedPage Today.