This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hey all,

I've been exploring various treatment options for ms and recently I stumbled upon stem cell treatment. I watched a lot of testimonials on youtube about miraculous recoveries after the treatment and frankly I cant make up my mind. Are they real? Are they fake? Are they just a few very lucky cases where the treatment really did work wonders? Does it work like that for everyone (I honestly doubt that)? But if there is an environmental component to MS it would be logical that some improvement should be seen after stem cell treatment. Anyway I'd love to hear your opinions on this topic.

Best,
Brent

I think the school is still out on stem cells. The miraculous statements about patients and stem cells are coming from overseas with no peer review data to back their claims. There are ongoing trials in Europe and US but they will take a couple of years to complete then if their successful then I'll get excited.

milesap wrote:I think the school is still out on stem cells. The miraculous statements about patients and stem cells are coming from overseas with no peer review data to back their claims. There are ongoing trials in Europe and US but they will take a couple of years to complete then if their successful then I'll get excited.

My point exactly. However even here on thisisMS there are quite a few topics on stem cell treatment. The one I find most interesting is this one by Asher:

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/stem-cell ... 16953.html

Here is some more info from some stem cell treatment patients - I too am interested, but very confused...

http://multiplesclerosisradio.com/stem- ... nge-lives/

By very careful these waters are filled with paid advocates, credentials mean nothing. What I do think however is that there is a great deal of misconception surrounding their treatments. After Judi Lecoq posted the Dr's speel there is certainly a lot of bafflegag. He clearly has found a voice through MS social media sites. My consensus is, I see desperate patients prepared to spend a great deal of money for what can only be described as some mediocre results. As more and more patients seek these treatments they develop a great awareness and understanding of the science. Still very difficult to navigate the waters but hopefully we can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Right off the bat Jennifers tale brings your attention to the fact Celltex provides higher doses of stem cells than over seas clinics, with no explanation of infusion technique. She later suggests as an added bonus it can it reduced dense breast tissue. Cancer kills about 8 mill patients a year those numbers are excepted to up to 20 mill be 2012. Breast cancer is on the rise by 25%, 100 of thousands are employed in cancer research with billions spent globally. If the type of cell infusion they offer even remotely offered any hope for cancer patients they would not waste their time chasing and treating the minnow diseases. I think Jennifer might be given consideration for that list of advocates.


These are some recent comments by Dr. Christopher Duntsch, Neurosurgeon Clinical Director at Texas Neurosurgical Institute.
“I have two decades working with ESCs, totipotent derivatives, and adult stem cells. Multi-species for neural stem cells, adipose stem cells, spinal disc stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, totipotent multi-potential stem cells, cancer stem cells of many types, mesenchymal stem cells, bone stem cells, annulus stem cells, several others. All in the context of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. From my experience I will share a simple observation that I have seen played out over years from many academic efforts, my own and those of many others, and from the biotech sector (cytori, or mesoblast for example). Adipose stem cells are atypical and stand out in their biology and potential against most if not all stem cells ... they are different species for lack of a better way of putting it. They can be pushed in several directions for the purposes of tissue engineering efforts. However, I have seen again and again, my own work and that of many others at academic and commercial levels, that adipose stem cells, while not an actual adipose stem cell, instead a perivascular stem cell that is related to but not directly derived from vasculature biologics or pericyte biology, are of little use when developed in the context of regenerative medicine that does not involve vasculature. If you attempt to develop a research project or program developing adipose stem cells for liver disease or spinal cord stem cell based therapeutics, etc, you will be disappointed and make little progress. If you target you efforts to the vasculature and vascular related pathology (stroke, TIA, CAD, Ischemic events, etc.), you are very likely to be rewarded with the data and the progress that you are seeking. Adipose stem cells, while I am not sure that are or are not directly derived from pericytes or even actually pericytes, or similar related to vascular biologics, are closely related in many ways functionally and biologically and are a good adult stem cell to work with for the aforementioned areas. Although my opinions are based on lots of data by many researchers and my opinions sound definitive, they are just, that opinions, and despite what you might see in the literature, be thoughtful before you commit to something that might take years, resources, and time that could be directed in several ways to a better outcome.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/j ... -treatment
http://www.healthintheglobalvillage.com ... nspection/

Interesting conversation.

This article is about a scam artist doctor, just sentenced to prison for cheating patients, including MS patients:
Follow this link
http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/arti ... 840330.php

This article on an excellent MS blog gives much useful information. The author has commented here for a lot longer than
I have. He's not always around, so I'm posting this now since it fits the conversation.
The link is here
http://www.wheelchairkamikaze.com/2013/ ... tiple.html

Lemtrada/ Alemtuzumab and Rituximab also supposedly offer a similar hope.

Thanks for your replies. It's always good to get some insight from others. The links all of you provided were extremely helpful for me. Thanks to your feedback I finally have some reliable information to work with.

Brent, I have received successful treatment let me know if you are interested in more info?

Only wishing everyone the best with their choices.

Good luck really really. But in my opinion chemotherapy treatments are for cancer. These HSCT treatments have been going on in different parts of the world for years. My neuro told my the disease can still come back and some patients have died due to this treatment.

Thanks? Slov-

SLOV8213 wrote:Good luck really really. But in my opinion chemotherapy treatments are for cancer. These HSCT treatments have been going on in different parts of the world for years. My neuro told my the disease can still come back and some patients have died due to this treatment.

Don't listen to your neuro when it comes to HSCT...they are not experts in that field. Do your own research and make an informed decision.

In the Swiss study 38 of the 350 study subjects ultimately died, it only worked to a greater or lesser degree in fewer than 60% of all treatments and had no effect whatsoever in another 30% yet they called it, successful, 'worth further investigation'. Patients (all relatively young and otherwise vigorous), died due to infection and disease contraction while they were susceptible to airborne infections after immune system ablation. After chemotherapy and radiation therapy immune systems have no ability to fight off diseases. SO WHY ARE THEY USING A THERAPY MEANT FOR ELIMINATION OF BLOOD.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/ar102.pdf

This sure escalated quickly. I wish there was some full proof method of dealing with ms. =/ For now I got my eyes set on rehabilitation. Thank you for your feedback on stem cells guys but I'm pretty sure this is not an option for me.

SLOV8213, the study you mention is from 1999. They don't use radiation anymore and treatment is focused on healthier patients now, not as a last hope. Total mortality rate is less than 1% which cannot be said about any other treatment at the moment.