Through adult stem cell treatment patients with Multiple Sclerosis are getting their lives back. When it comes to making a difference in people’s lives, adult stem cells are ethically far superior in practice to stem cells taken from embryonic human beings. And by using the patient’s own cells, you’ve precluded transplant rejection. Moreover, unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells carry no concern of tumors.
Great that treatment utilizing adult stem cells for patients suffering from degenerating diseases is happening, furthermore it is wonderful to see positive media coverage. The only problem is the reference to the success of this treatment as 'miraculous'. The benefits of stem cell therapy are not miraculous as they are happening everyday all over the world. - RCSI
Am I a candidate for stem cell treatment for Multiple Sclerosis?
Pioneering use of adult stem cells is making huge improvement in the condition of MS patients
By Dave Andrusko
Recovery: MS sufferer Holly Drewery became wheelchair-bound after the birth of daughter Isla, but thanks to the stem cell transplant she can dance, run and chase after Isla in the park
If we’ve written once about the successful uses of adult stem cells, we’ve probably written 50 times, demonstrating that ethically unobjectionable adult stem cells are far superior in practice to stem cells taken from embryonic human beings.
When it comes to making a difference in people’s lives, adult stem cells– isolated from many different tissues, including bone marrow, blood, muscle, fat, and umbilical cord blood–are the gold standard.
The latest evidence comes courtesy of a story in the Daily Mail. In typical Daily Mail fashion the headline is anything but understated: “Dancing, walking and running again, the wheelchair-bound MS patients after they were given ‘miraculous’ stem cell treatment.”
But while the headline over Fiona Macrae’s story seems a bit overstated, her story quietly demonstrates that real progress is being made in treating multiple sclerosis, a devastating disease. I asked David Prentice, an expert on stem cells of all kinds, what he thought of the study, lead by Professor Basil Sharrack, of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He told NRL News Today
This is another gratifying example of the successful application of adult stem cells. Prof. Sharrack and colleagues are to be congratulated for undertaking this study, which has shown extremely promising results. Their publication of the data in the Journal of the American Medical Association adds even more evidence to the already-substantial successes for adult stem cell treatments for patients. The protocol they use, pioneered by Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern University (who is also a co-author on the JAMA paper), involves harvest and purification of some of the patient’s bone marrow adult stem cells, then chemotherapy to kill the rogue immune cells that are causing the autoimmune problem of multiple sclerosis, followed by re-infusion of the patient’s adult stem cells. The patient’s adult stem cells “reboot” their immune and blood system, and also seem to facilitate some repair of the nervous system.
There are also two hurtles that are bypassed. By using the patient’s own cells, you’ve precluded transplant rejection. Moreover, unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells carry no concern of tumors.
Macrae’s story provides two encouraging examples.
Holly Drewery was plagued with numbness and blurred vision. She was diagnosed with MS. Her health grew worse, as Macrae writes.
She became wheelchair-bound after her health worsened on Isla’s [her daughter’s] birth. She needed help with basic tasks and couldn't’t even wiggle her toes.
Three weeks after the stem cell transplant she was able to walk out of hospital.
Now, more than 18 months on, she is almost back to normal. She has a part-time office job and, although she still gets tired, can dance, run and chase after Isla, two, in the park.
She said: ‘All I wanted to be able to do is take Isla out. It worked wonders. I am more or less back to normal.’
Another patient, Sam Ramsey, was paralyzed from the neck down by MS after she collapsed when out celebrating her 22nd birthday.
Nothing worked until the adult stem cell treatment. Now she can walk on crutches and can drive.
“This treatment has given me my life back,” she told the Sunday Times. “This is not a word I would use lightly but we have seen profound neurological improvements.”
Of course more follow-up must be done to ensure that the amazing progress is not short-lived. But toward the very end of the story comes this very encouraging secondary improvement:
As well as stopping the disease in its tracks the treatment, known as autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, seems to heal damage that has already been done.via
Am I a candidate for stem cell treatment for Multiple Sclerosis?
At a Health Affairs panel Tuesday researchers spoke about the costs of false-positive mammograms and breast cancer over diagnoses in the U.S. Researchers believe by applying the false-positive rate of 11%, nearly 3.2 million women would receive false positive mammograms each year, at a cost of $2.8 billion annually. For years, a DCIS finding automatically led to bilateral mastectomy. However, providers now realize that it often does not progress and sometimes is actually not even cancerous.These false-positive screenings expose patients to additional diagnostic workup and psychological distress.
MAMMOGRAPHY'S $4-BILLION PROBLEM
Millions of women receive false-positive results annually, and 20,000 are over treated.
by Shannon Firth
Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON -- For too many women, breast cancer screening does more harm than good, a researcher said here.
Kenneth Mandl, PhD, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Boston Children's Hospital Informatics Program, and Mei-Sing Long, PhD, a research fellow at the hospital, examined the costs of false-positive mammograms and breast cancer overdiagnoses in the U.S. Mandl spoke at a Health Affairs panel about the cost and quality of cancer care Tuesday.
"There's a $4-billion problem, and it's $4 billion dollars being spent on two undesirable outcomes," he said, referring to false-positive results and overtreatment of breast cancer.
The magnitude of the financial problem will likely grab policymakers' attention first, but what's important is the human cost, he said.
"There are many women who are brave enough to face a false-positive thinking they that they are ultimately protecting themselves from cancer, and it's a small price to pay. The calculus changes if the protection from cancer is very small," Mandl told MedPage Today.
Providers, patients, and their families need to have a clear understanding of the facts around mammography screening, including "the magnitude of the benefit and the likelihood of the harm," he said.
Mandl and Ong obtained cost data from a major healthcare insurance carrier covering some 700,000 women 40 to 59 years old, who had undergone routine mammograms from 2011 to 2013. The data included demographic characteristics as well as all their medical claims.
The researchers excluded women receiving mammography for diagnostic reasons, those who had been screened within 9 months prior to the index screen, and women with a high risk of breast cancer, "since they may have been undergoing surveillance mammography instead of routine screening," the report noted.
Mandl and Ong defined a false-positive mammogram as a screening test that is later revealed not to be cancer, yet "exposes patients to additional diagnostic workup and psychological distress."
They define overdiagnosis as identifying lesions that are "unlikely to become clinically evident during the lifetime of a patient [that ] exposes patients to the harm of overtreatment." Amounts the insurance company paid to healthcare providers for patients' services, excluding copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles, were totaled to reflect costs of diagnosis and treatment.
False-positive findings were returned in 11% of the routine screening mammograms included in the analysis.
In the U.S., with 21.2 million women ages 40 to 49 and another 22.4 million 50 to 59, and with screening rates of about 62% and 73%, respectively, the researchers estimated that about 29.5 million women in these age groups received mammograms in a year. Using the false-positive rate of 11%, they calculated that nearly 3.2 million women would receive false positive mammograms each year, at a cost of $2.8 billion annually.
The researchers also calculated that in the 40-to-59 age group there would be 114,298 screen-detected cancers, of which about one-fifth would be ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and the rest invasive tumors. Citing an overdiagnosis rate of 22%, based on recent studies, the researchers calculated that 20,116 women would be overdiagnosed with invasive breast cancer, at a cost of $1 billion each year. (Mandl and Ong were unable to determine which breast cancers were overdiagnosed using the claims data. "Thus we applied published overdiagnosis rates to determine the number of women who were likely to have been overdiagnosed," they noted in their report.)
"Here, we're talking about someone who's asymptomatic, not concerned about why they're sick, and not looking for a diagnosis," said Mandl.
The rate of overdiagnosis for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a shocking 86%, according to the largest most recent study. For years, a DCIS finding automatically led to bilateral mastectomy, Mandl said. However, providers now realize that it often does not progress and sometimes is actually not even cancerous.
Mandl and Ong estimated the cost of DCIS overdiagnosis nationwide to be $243 million.
In total, they estimated costs of $1.2 billion in overdiagnoses for both invasive breast cancer and DCIS and another $2.8 billion for the workup and treatment costs associated with false positives.
Since 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended breast cancer screening every other year, for women ages 50 to 74. For women under 50 years old, the Task Force notes, "The decision to start regular, biennial screening mammography before the age of 50 years should be an individual one and take patient context into account, including the patient's values regarding specific benefits and harms."
Ong and Mandl in their report's conclusion suggested that selective screening could benefit more patients than routine screening by age alone.
In selective screening, factors such as age, family history, genetic predisposition, breast density changes, and characteristics of mammography should help decide which women should receive screening, Mandl explained.
The idea is to limit screening to women for whom it clearly has a positive benefit-harm balance, although no specific algorithm for selective screening has been widely accepted.
In their Health Affairs paper, the researchers also noted that more research is needed "to develop risk-based stratification models" to prevent overtreatment of correctly diagnosed cancers and DCIS.
As for the impact of their report, Mandl said he hopes it will contribute to an understanding of the economics and explain why the "status quo" of current practices is so firmly entrenched.
"Any change in recommendation will shift the revenue one way or another and that has to be an explicit part of the conversation," Mandl said.via
Are you a Candidate for Breast Cancer Treatment?
One of the first places in the brain to degenerate in people with Alzheimer's disease is the front part of the temporal lobe that evolved from the smell system, this portion of the brain is involved in forming new memories. A grad student at the University of Florida has came up with the idea of using peanut butter to test for smell sensitivity. At UF, the peanut butter test will be one more tool to add to a full suite of clinical tests for neurological function in patients with memory disorders.
Peanut butter helps diagnose Alzheimer's disease
Researchers found that by placing a dollop of peanut butter on a ruler,
they could identify early stages of Alzheimer's disease,
based on patients' ability to detect the odor at certain distances.
A dollop of peanut butter and a ruler can be used to confirm a diagnosis of early stage Alzheimer's disease, University of Florida Health researchers have found.
Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student in the University of Florida (UF) McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste, and her colleagues reported the findings of a small pilot study in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Stamps came up with the idea of using peanut butter to test for smell sensitivity while she was working with Dr. Kenneth Heilman, one of the world's best known behavioral neurologists, from the UF College of Medicine's department of neurology.
While shadowing doctors in Heilman's clinic, she noticed that patients were not tested for their sense of smell. The ability to smell is associated with the first cranial nerve and is often one of the first things to be affected in cognitive decline.
"Dr. Heilman said, 'If you can come up with something quick and inexpensive, we can do it,'" Stamps says.
She thought of peanut butter because, she said, it is a "pure odorant" that is only detected by the olfactory nerve and is easy to access.
Widespread problem
According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's disease affects 5.2 million people in the US and will cost the nation $203 billion in this year alone.
The Association estimates that one American develops Alzheimer's every 68 seconds, and they expect to see this figure rise to one American every 33 seconds by 2050.
In the study, patients who were coming to the clinic for testing also sat down with a clinician, who was armed with 14 grams of peanut butter - which equals about 1 tablespoon - and a metric ruler. The patient closed his or her eyes and mouth and blocked one nostril.
The clinician opened the peanut butter container and held the ruler next to the open nostril while the patient breathed normally. By moving the peanut butter up the ruler 1 cm at a time during the patient's exhalation, they were able to measure the distance at which the patient could detect the odor.
The distance was recorded and the procedure repeated on the other nostril after a 90-second delay.
The clinicians running the test did not know the patients' diagnoses, which were not usually confirmed until weeks after the initial clinical testing.
Sense of smell loss
The scientists found that patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease had a dramatic difference in detecting odor between the left and right nostril - the left nostril was impaired and did not detect the smell until it was an average of 10 cm closer to the nose than the right nostril had made the detection in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
This was not the case in patients with other kinds of dementia; instead, these patients had either no differences in odor detection between nostrils or the right nostril was worse at detecting odor than the left one.
Of the 24 patients tested who had mild cognitive impairment, which sometimes signals Alzheimer's disease and sometimes turns out to be something else, about 10 patients showed a left nostril impairment and 14 patients did not.
The researchers said more studies must be conducted to fully understand the implications.
Stamps explains:
"At the moment, we can use this test to confirm diagnosis. But we plan to study patients with mild cognitive impairment to see if this test might be used to predict which patients are going to get Alzheimer's disease."
Stamps and Dr. Heilman point out that this test could be used by clinics that do not have access to the personnel or equipment to run other, more elaborate tests required for a specific diagnosis, which can lead to targeted treatment.
At UF Health, the peanut butter test will be one more tool to add to a full suite of clinical tests for neurological function in patients with memory disorders.
Non-invasive, early stage test
One of the first places in the brain to degenerate in people with Alzheimer's disease is the front part of the temporal lobe that evolved from the smell system, and this portion of the brain is involved in forming new memories.
"We see people with all kinds of memory disorders," Heilman said. Many tests to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or other dementias can be time-consuming, costly or invasive. "This can become an important part of the evaluation process."
The UF study could help by detecting a person's likelihood of developing the disease at a much earlier stage, with a non-invasive test.
The Alzheimer's Association acknowledge that at the moment, there is no cure for the disease, nor can current Alzheimer's treatments stop Alzheimer's from progressing. They can, however, temporarily slow the worsening of dementia symptoms. This improves the quality of life for both sufferers and their caregivers.
As Stamps says:
"If we can catch it at that early stage, we can start treatment more aggressively at the early stage and you can possibly prevent a lot of the progression."
Medical News Today reported in July this year that taking certain lifestyle measures, including taking regular exercise and eating a balanced diet, could reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's.via
Written by Belinda Weber
Ryan Benton, a 28 year-old Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy patient from Wichita, Kansas, received his first umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell treatment yesterday following US FDA approval of his doctor’s application for a single patient, investigational new drug (IND) for compassionate use.
After FDA Approval, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy Patient Receives First Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Treatment in the United States
Ryan Benton, a 28 year-old Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy patient from Wichita, Kansas, received his first umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell treatment yesterday at Asthma and Allergy Specialists of Wichita, KS following US FDA approval of his doctor’s application for a single patient, investigational new drug (IND) for compassionate use.
Wichita, KS (PRWEB) September 10, 2014
Ryan Benton, a 28 year-old Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy patient from Wichita, Kansas, received his first umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell treatment yesterday following US FDA approval of his doctor’s application for a single patient, investigational new drug (IND) for compassionate use.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rapidly progressive form of muscular dystrophy that occurs primarily in boys. It is caused by an alteration (mutation) in a gene, called the DMD gene, which causes the muscles to stop producing the protein dystrophin. Individuals who have DMD experience progressive loss of muscle function and weakness, which begins in the lower limbs and leads to progressively worsening disability. Death usually occurs by age 25, typically from lung disorders. There is no known cure for DMD.
This trial, officially entitled “Allogeneic transplantation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC) for a single male patient with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)” marks the first time the FDA has approved an investigational allogeneic stem cell treatment for Duchenne’s in the United States.
Ryan received his first intramuscular stem cell injections from allergy and immunology specialist, Van Strickland, M.D at Asthma and Allergy Specialists in Wichita, Kansas. He will receive 3 more treatments this week on consecutive days. Dr. Strickland will administer similar courses to Ryan every 6 months for a total of 3 years.
This is not the first time Ryan has undergone umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell therapy. Since 2009, Ryan has been traveling to the Stem Cell Institute in Panama for similar treatments. Encouraging results from these treatments prompted Dr. Strickland to seek out a way to treat Ryan in the United States.via
Am I a Candidate for Stem Cell Treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy?
A 71 year old male suffering from congestive heart failure had a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) put in his chest, but his recovery may also have to do with the fact that his treatment included injections of his own bone marrow stem cells. The patient is taking part in a cutting-edge study at the University of Minnesota, where researchers hope that stem cell therapy could eliminate the need for transplants.
Stem Cell Therapy Offers Hope of Eliminating Need for Heart Transplants
Allan Isaacs, 71, had congestive heart failure, which made it difficult to perform basic tasks such as walking, breathing and eating.
But after getting a left ventricular assist device put in his chest, he got moving again.
The LVAD helps pump oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, but Isaccs' recovery may also have to do with the fact that his treatment included injections of his own bone marrow stem cells. Isaacs is taking part in a cutting-edge study at the University of Minnesota.
"We isolate the stem cells and when they go in for surgery we inject those cells on the heart wall," said Dr. Ganesh Raveendran,
director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of Minnesota Medical Center.
One-third of the patients receive a placebo, and the rest get 10 injections of stem cells into their hearts.
Muscle tissue is then analyzed to see whether the cells have transformed into cardiac muscle or made other meaningful changes.
In many cases, an LVAD is a bridge to a transplant, but the hope is that the stem cell therapy could eliminate the need for a transplant.
The research team at the University of Minnesota Medical Center hopes to wrap up the study by the end of the year before launching a much bigger national study.via
Am I a Candidate for Heart Stem Cells?