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Diabetics rush for 'cure'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/diabetics-rush-for-cure/2007/12/22/1198175406073.html
'More and more energetic' ¦ Lynley White, 62, who has cardiomyopathy, had stem-cell treatment in Bangkok in October to improve her condition.
Louise Hall
December 23, 2007
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
AUSTRALIANS with type 2 diabetes are signing up for a costly, unproven stem cell "cure" at a South American clinic.
The clinic says 89per cent of its patients are insulin and medication-free 90 days after being injected with their own stem cells. The treatment costs $US16,000 ($18,500).
Some patients who have undergone the same stem-cell therapy for heart disease - which is illegal in all Western countries - say it has given them "a new lease on life".
But the world's leading stem-cell scientists warn that patients desperate for a miracle cure are putting themselves at grave risk by undergoing a treatment yet to be fully tested in humans.
ICORM director Mike Bartlett said more than 300 patients had been successfully treated for heart disease, diabetes, emphysema and Parkinson's disease at its hospitals in South America and Asia.
Mr Bartlett spent last week in Sydney meeting diabetes specialists and cardiologists to encourage them to refer their end-stage patients.
To date, 31 Australians with type2 diabetes and seven with heart disease had indicated a wish to travel to Argentina as soon as possible, and a further 208 had made inquiries, he said.
Dr Ross Walker, a Sydney Adventist Hospital cardiologist and author of the bestselling book The Cell Factor, said he would travel to the Clinic early next year to assess the claims for himself.
"I believe it is the next big thing in medicine but I want to see solid scientific evidence that it doesn't do any harm before recommending it for the wider population," he said.
Under the patented process, 250millilitres of a patient's blood is manipulated to yield millions of therapeutic stem cells. The cells are then injected into the diseased organ or tissue. Patients are usually sent home within two days.
Numerous patients have testified to the "miraculous" effects of the treatment,
which uses adult stem cells, not the more ethically-questionable embryonic stem cells. Keith Fanning said the $70,000 he spent flying his dying father, Mick, 75, to Bangkok for stem-cell therapy was "the best $70,000 I ever spent". Oxygen-dependent and barely able to walk before the procedure in July, Mr Fanning's ejection fraction (EF) - the measurement of the capacity at which the heart is pumping - increased so much that he can now breathe, talk and eat on his own.
His insulin dependency is also down and his violent shaking from Parkinson's has virtually disappeared.
"I'm the ultimate sceptic and it's the closest thing I've seen to a miracle," he said from his Queensland home.
In October, Lynley White, from Melbourne, spent $45,000 to have 30 stem-cell injections in her heart after traditional drug therapy failed to improve her cardiomyopathy.
"My doctors laughed at me and said I had rocks in my head but so far so good. I'm feeling more and more energetic," she said.
At 62, she was unlikely to receive the heart transplant she needed to keep going. Of the 120 people who have tried the treatment at Bangkok Heart Hospital, four have died. But Mrs White said her only fear was she would not survive the anaesthetic.
"My ejection fraction was getting lower and lower - it got down to 12 when it should be 55 plus - and I thought 'I've got to help myself'," she said.
Immediately after treatment her EF rating was up by 64 per cent.
Dr Teija Peura, director of human embryonic stem cell laboratories at the Australian Stem Cell Centre, said: "It's understandable that patients who are desperate can't wait for treatment to go through the approval process but it's dangerous because these countries are giving treatment which they don't know how or why [it] works."
The International Society for Stem Cell Research said the only stem cell-based therapy with clearly proven efficacy was bone marrow transplantation for blood disorders and leukaemia.
lhall@sunherald.com.au
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