Many new stem cell therapies have been developed in recent years. Scientists are also discovering many new uses for different types of stem cells and improving the way they perform stem cell transplants.
At the same time, the number of clinics offering stem cell therapies has dramatically increased. Some of these clinics make outlandish claims and suggest that stem cells can cure almost anything — without surgery or painful side effects. They are now being used for all kinds of procedures ranging from the mild (skin treatments and hair loss treatments) to the more serious (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease treatments).
Some of the clinics make vague claims about their stem cell transplant being able to improve a person’s quality of life, while others suggest they can treat serious ailments that mainstream medicine cannot cure.
Unfortunately, in many cases these clinics are way in front of the research. For example, although the research indicates that stem cells “may be” able to treat Parkinson’s disease, it hasn’t been proven and the safety of a stem cell treatment is yet to be determined.
In the United States, the FDA only places a minimal level of scrutiny on these kinds of clinics and has mostly left it up to the patient to determine if they should have the treatment. Stem cell transplants don’t have to go through the rigorous FDA approval process that drugs and other medical treatments do.
The reason why stem cell therapies avoid many of those FDA processes is that in most case, the cells come from a person’s own body. There is only a small amount of manipulation occurring to those cells and they are simply being transplanted back into the patient they came from.
However, the FDA has become increasingly concerned about how these clinics are manipulating cells and recently sent some warning letters to clinics who are devising advanced stem cell therapies that behave like biologic drugs.
They may also soon take action on the unproved stem cell transplants that are being advertised by some clinics. Until the new rules come into play, patients should be careful about which clinic they use for their procedures and how much evidence is behind the procedure they are receiving.
Source: It should be safety-first on stem cell therapies
{{cta(‘010124f3-c9bc-4a23-b9fc-74953e6288c9’)}}
{{cta(‘fec594e9-5433-4350-9180-2bdd371eb399’)}}