Ten or so years ago when I started my career (if thus it can be called) in healthcare research I have to admit I’d never heard of the concept of stem cells – let alone stem cell therapy.
But over the years reading patient blogs and social media I began to realise that there was a sort of “underground” buzz about such therapies. Indeed when trawling around the web the two most common words associated with stem cell therapies seemed to be “controversial” and “breakthrough”. So I decided to investigate more.
In fact I discovered that I had heard of stem cell therapies. Bone marrow transplants (a type of stem cell therapy) have been in use for decades. Showing, at least, there must be something in it.
This leads me, neatly, to the point to this blog. What does stem cell therapy actually mean for us as healthcare users and why, if it is a breakthrough, should it be so controversial?
Well let’s start with the first question. Stem cell therapy is where doctors introduce adult stem cells into damaged tissue which in turn helps to treat an injury or disease. Simple, I hear you cry!
So what is a stem cell? You have to sift through a lot of waffle on the internet to find out the answer but, in a nutshell, they are cells which have the ability to become other cells. They are a sort of “mother cell” which is not directly linked to a specific bodily function but can turn into, say, blood or bone cells. In scientific parlance stem cells are undifferentiated cells as opposed to say muscle cells which are referred to as differentiated.
These stem cells are often cultivated in a lab and then transplanted to the host/patient as a treatment. The cells may help generate new cells which can affect a cure. One example is that stem cells may be used to kick start insulin production in the pancreas as a way of treating T1 diabetes.
While bone marrow transplants are now common; other uses of stem cells are still to some extent in the future. Some scientists see the therapy as the future of treatments for such conditions as cancer (https://patienttalk.org/?tag=cancer), Type 1 diabetes (https://patienttalk.org/?tag=diabetes) , Parkinson’s disease (https://patienttalk.org/?p=208), Celiac disease https://patienttalk.org/?tag=celiac), cardiac failure, muscle damage and neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (https://patienttalk.org/?tag=multiple-sclerosis). But only now are clinical trials being conducted so it may take some years. Though in China, among a number of countries, stem cell therapy has reached clinical level i.e. it is being used on patients.
It is quite possible that stem cells may be very valuable for future drug development. It may well be that the testing of new drugs will be on stem cells rather than living creatures.
That being said a number of medical practices offer patients access to stem cell therapy today.
One of the reasons the therapy has been described as controversial is the use or embryonic as opposed to adult stem cells. For many the use of or embryonic stem cells is equivalent to abortion. But it does seem that almost all current research is into adult stem cells.
So where does it leave us? For some it is humans “playing God” while for others it will be the future of medicine.
The reality in my view is somewhat different. In fact we are just embarking on the study of stem cells so in my opinion we still have to wait. As with most things in life the result may not be what we imagine.
nadine78 gracie13 Hy im22 with agressive ms,can you give memoreinformation about this stem celltransplant.Virginia Iaru on facebook. virginia_wlf@yahoo.com e-mail .please
nadine78 hy,nadine ! Im22 and ihave aggresive ms,nothing is workingforme…where did you have stem cell therapy,any information,please!! virginia_wlf@yahoo.com
I’m not sure if the American National MS Society can help, but I’d certainly be scouring the web for all info! Our desire for a cure is much bigger than national boundaries! Good luck! And please share what you find!!
OMG! YES! chemo (cytoxin) brought me back to life in 2001! i had graduated from college in 2000, worked a few months, got super sick w. really aggressive ms, i had 9 months of cytoxin infusions and was able to go back to work! dr. calabresi (now head of ms center at johns hopkins) was very aggressive with me and i’m so thankful. i only worked for about 4 years, but without it i would get nothing for disability. over the years a huge issue has been cognitive. this past year plus, the stem cell transplant used cytoxin and i wasn’t too freaked out since i’ve used it before. this time of course it was a huge dose but really, chemo has helped me SO much.
before we found the northwestern trial we looked into into studies in england using stem cells. even hoped the fact my mom was born there would help! nothing came of that. they were doing work w. huntingtons and parkinsons but i don’t think there was anything for ms at the time.
Do you know how pissed off I was when I heard that GWB wanted to ban all stem cell research? How could he even think of denying treatments or cures for the millions of patients hoping for that? I also remember reading somewhere a long time ago that radiation therapy may restore some of the functions MS took away from us. I also believe that was happening in Europe. Worth looking into maybe?
Not having a medical education, I just KNEW that stem cells were the answer. I was so excruciatingly pissed off that GWB tried to ban stem cell research! Now I won’t place all my hopes in this one idea (not all my eggs in one basket), but I am hopeful! I also read a while ago, that they can use chemo to return those functions that MS stole. I believe that was in Europe, not here. But then I don’t remember when that published, so that info may be wrong. But everything is worth a glance!
BrendaStapleton nadine78 you can check out this site www.stemcell-immunotherapy.org he is actually an immunologist and i was looking into his ms study but could not walk well enough. he said he thought he could help me and was he right! AND somehow i got it covered by medicare and my secondary insurance and fast. that is a huge hangup for people and it’s expensive. there is a closed group on fb of people who have had or are considering it for the various autoimmune diseases I mentioned. and if you’re interested i can give the founder of the group your name.
i’m beyond angry it’s not out there more. it’s all about the drug companies. i was on betaseron for years and got tons of help from them but some of us need the big guns. the only other stem cell trial i’m aware of in this county for ms is full. and my neuro for around 14 years at johns hopkins, who wrote about me years ago, couldn’t come up w. anything better – he talked to dr. burt and it all just happened. 🙂
nadine78 MarilynRoberts
Praise God, I am so glad they are treating other processes. I would love to have an opportunity to have my MS cured, but if my daughter could have her Rheumatoid Arthritis treated… that would be enough for me. To see her pirouette in toe shoes is the most beautiful site I have ever seen. Is there a number or an email to contact this group?
MarilynRoberts nadine78 you are so sweet! it’s not just ms that dr. burt treats. Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Diabetes, Lupus, Crohn’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), Phemphigus, Dermatomyositis, Devic’s, Myasthenia Gravis, Polymositis and Scleroderma at northwestern university feinberg school of medicine. i want everyone to know! i was looking internationally for anything……i was skeptical but i am a believer and can’t wait to see him in a few months!
I feel the same way you do Marion hurry up already. We have a very close friend who’s 54 yrs old and was almost dying with cancer until his doc did stem cell with the bone marrow. He’s now cancer free thank God.
i’m not marilyn (excuse me marilyn :)) but did want to mention that when i saw dr. burt he was on the fence about treating me but when they saw that i had at least 14 new enhancing lesions i didn’t have a couple months ago and still had very active ms he took me on. i believe you have to have an active disease for it to work, so he couldn’t treat ppms? i’m not really sure about secondary progressive. for me, at the time , i couldn’t get worse but he mentioned a study he had done for secondary years ago and that was not successful.
MarilynRoberts I don’t mean to intrude… I am sure you have a right to feel the way you do… just wanted to mention that a lot of times, people confuse church with the reason for being there. Having worked in medicine, 90% of us believe that we would not have the abilities to do what we do, without faith, and there have been so many times that medicine has been totally ruled out as a reason for healing. It’s not church that makes an illness lesser or that makes it disappear. It is that grace by unconditional love is sufficient to believe that faith in what we don’t know in a physical sense through medicine can heal us. There are some who will say, don’t take the medicine, God will heal you. That may be true, but I have been taught that God has given certain people gifts to become pharmacists and doctors to find these medicines and we are given the foresight to take them to heal ourselves. Everyone has a strange way of looking at things especially when it comes to religion and church. Anytime someone has a bad feeling towards church, I always want to make sure there is a deeper understanding that not all “churches” are there to promote God, so much as there to promote other things. Just a thought.
Marilyn, does that include ppms? Sounds like great news!
nadine78 May your case be one of the first cures discovered from stem cell therapy!
Lbelle Nope, its researched from adult stem cells. With that as a start, the concept of reversing the damage done by MS is breathtaking!
Do you see why I’m atheist? Church and medicine never agreed. And as an MS patient, I have to believe FULLY in medicine! Besides the church never once made any illness lesser or disappear.
I do not have any objection to stem cell research or transplants from bone marrow; but I draw the line with the use of voluntarily aborted embryos. If this was a still birth or similar situation and the parents donated the body to science; I believe the fate was determined by a higher power. If the parents donate the cord of child (living or nonliving) for cord cell research, I have no argument; it is the authorized abortion of any embryo-fetus-child by a parent where I refuse to be a part of. I am an organ donor, and I believe in giving life to others… but not through the death of another at the hands of anyone other than my God in heaven.
northwestern university. http://fsmweb.northwestern.edu/faculty/FacultyProfile.cfm?xid=14172
i couldn’t get in his ms study because i needed a walker to walk, not just cane but he treats many autoimmune diseases and i got there just in time. also, i’m on medicare w. great secondary insurance and it was covered.
NorthWeastern what? Does anyone know what this is for? I just read a more then delightful post by nadine78. She said that she finnished her treatment at/from northeatern ?! northwestern… cookies, boats, cards, etc. What? northwestern what? darek.baksikcomcast.net
Oh if this therapy had anything to do with aborted babies I’d keep my ppms
I don’t clearly understand but If in anyway it can help MS I’m for it’ It would be nice if they found out the cause of MS first’
I see this as the future for curing auto-immune and other diseases. I hope the therapy will be available sooner, rather than later.
I strongly feel that this sort of treatment should be fast tracked through and further testing that needs to be done, and get it out there, improving peoples’ lives! I don’t see it as “playing God”, any more than what already happens with the medical breakthroughs that have already been made – eg, blood donation, organ donation, etc……. Please, please may whoever makes the decisions, hurry up and make the right ones, for all the people who are waiting!!
i just had stem cell therapy at northwestern! i can’t say enough about it – i was in a wheelchair in a nursing home, no one would listen to me. was dg. w. aggressive, rr ms in 2001 and had almost no physical problems until a year ago. i had hsct done and it’s been about 4 months post transplant. i can use the bathroom by myself, don’t even need a cane in the house, am in no pain anymore. this past year i’ve gone from wheelchair, to walker, to quad cane, to single point when i leave this house. amazing! btw, i’m 35. dr. burt and his team is remarkable!
nadine78 I was dx with M.S. 8 years ago, have used all the “normal” therapies. How does someone like me get information about stem cell therapy? Any information would be great. personal email: kmarie1016@hotmail.com
nadine78 Yes! How do I find out more? Was diagnosed in 1998. No real problems until about 2005. Now I am in a wheel chair, can’t shower or go to the bathroom without help. I JUST WANT MY LIFE BACK. I thank GOD for blessing me with an awesome husband of 28 years that helps care for me. I couldn’t do this without his help but I just want to be normal again.
gracie13 i was dg. in ’01 and was treated very aggressively from the beginning w. chemo, high doses of cellcept plus ms meds. last year at this time we were looking everywhere. the cleveland clinic, which i believe has a small stem cell study but i think it’s full. the uk because mom was born there but couldnt get into a study. so we flew to northwestern university. dr. burt has done many stem cell transplants for various auto immune diseases. he’s an immunologist but obviously works w. a neurologist. i flew to chicago to see if i could be in his study but i needed a walker to walk, not just a cane. i was treated off study. here’s a little about dr. burt http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/20/adult-stem-cells-helping-patients-with-scleroderma-skin-disease/
are you on fb? there are closed groups for people who have had or are considering having the transplant w. dr.burt. i would have to give your name to the person who runs the group. you can friend me and see a little of what the process was like for me to. i’m only 7 months post transplant. it is beyond frustrating to know that this is something that can help many people but with ms it seems to be all about the drug companies.
nadine78gracie13 YES! What is your name on fb. I will friend you.
thanks,Gracie13
gracie13 nadine78
just look up my name nadine shapiro
also, i don’t use fb probably as much as others but i’ll be looking for you. 🙂
nadine78gracie13
My name is Michelle Nofziger. thanks