Does good news come in two's or three's? Another report was published in the BBC today about cord blood stem cells in the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis. This company in the Netherlands has already reported some work earlier on but there are a few more details on how the stem cells are administered in this article.
MS largely affects women more than men (ratios from 2.8 Female to 1 Male). In this case, Patricia Frost is a 66 year old who has had the disease for 14 years, lost the ability to walk for 10 years experienced a slow down her speech and in the last year, the disease has debilitated her arms and neck. Doctors will typically inform a patient that there is no cure for MS and certainly very few steps that can be taken to ease her pain or improve her health (check out this link for how MS affects the body). Like the previous blog entry, this patient raised 12,000 GBP (USD 22,293) to go to Rotterdam for some pre-treatments and her stem cell injections.
The Dutch clinic offering the experimental therapy has doctors which say that they have an 80% success rate in achieving improvements in patients' various conditions without experiencing any harmful side effects. The cord blood stem cells are supplied by a Swiss company by the name of Advanced Cell Therapeutics (not to be confused with Advanced Cell Technology, USA) based in Zurich, which apparently supplies a dozen other clinics around the world. Admittedly, their site is thin on information and does look rather dodgy...
What's the procedure that this patient went through? Firstly, a mannitol solution which the article reports as preparing the nervous system for taking up the stem cells (but it is known that mannitol has a special temporary property of opening the channels of the blood-brain barrier). Then, 1 million cord blood stem cells are infused through a drip and a series of injections into her neck, back and navel. This procedure is somewhat similar to the previous case- direct administration of the stem cells to site. The doctor Anneke Matthijssen administers the stem cells over a course of 4 hours and the patient is able to return home in 3 days. The interesting thing is the remarkably quick effects that are seen after the stem cells were injected in both cases. Immediately, the patients were both able to perform movements that they were unable to before.
There is doubt on the validity of the procedures and also on the quality and process in preparing the cells. The BBC attempted to reach ACT in Zurich but received no reply on their procedures. Can't imagine why they would want to reveal this as it would only allow others to replicate its methods. However, there does need to be some form of validation or the Dutch clinic might be forced to move to another country to offer its services. But in a country that was the first in Europe to legalize euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in 2001, I think that this service offering may at least reduce requests for euthanasia for MS patients who now have an experimental alternative.
Who's following up on the patient in 3 months? I'm wondering if Patricia's GP or family members will be able to provide some insight in the near future.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment