Stem cell clinics ripping off patients, bullying scientists
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:00 pm
Thanks for posting this, Scorpion. Overall, this is a very good article and highlights the issue of stem cell therapies offered around the world being mainly bogus and completely unhelpful. At best, such treatments can be described as "unproven." Many are actually downright dangerous with no beneficial effect in treatment of MS. These companies would not need so many lawyers to fight for them if the situation were otherwise.scorpion wrote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43760409/ns ... alth_care/
I found a single statement in the article as basically correct, but because the nomenclature can be confusing, the article is somewhat incomplete. Specifically when they state:
"stem cell transplants of any sort -- outside of bone marrow transplants and a few other rarely used treatments -- are not anywhere close to being ready for therapeutic use."
Actually, the nomenclature "Bone Marrow Transplants" is rarely used anymore. The procedure is now called "Stem Cell Transplantation." So the article would have been more accurate to refer to "stem cell transplants with chemotherapy" as being a legitimate procedure that is currently in FDA phase III clinical trial and the closest to being recognized & approved beneficial therapy for multiple sclerosis. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), as opposed to all the other stem cell treatments for MS, is not an experimental procedure and is certainly not a scam, a myth or a bogus money-making treatment for MS. In fact, it is the only treatment to date proven to significantly improve the EDSS score of existing MS patients. Here are the statistics:
http://themscure.blogspot.com/2010/06/s ... rence.html
But again, thanks for posting this article. There are so many scam treatments around the world that it's quite disheartening to see this unethical business behavior adding to the confusion out there. People need to be educated and beware!
Hope things are well with you!