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The first non-family bone marrow transplant took place in Bulgaria this Tuesday showing that the world is moving forward with stem cells even if the US is not. Bone Marrow transplants have been carried out for about 40 years for leukemia and other cancers to replace bone marrow destroyed by chemotherapy. -dg
Bulgaria: Unique Stem Cell Transplantation Carried Out in Bulgaria
The first transplantation of stem cells from a non-family member donor in Bulgaria was carried out Tuesday night at the National Specialized Hospital for Active Treatment of Hematological Diseases in Sofia.
The stem cells arrived from Frankfurt at the Sofia International Airport on Tuesday night and were taken to the hospital by the director, Georgi Mihaylov, the Bulgarian private TV channel bTV reported.
They were used for the life-saving transplantation of a 28-year-old woman with acute leukemia.
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USA DOCTORS: “You are irreversibly blind with no chance of recovering your vision.”
INDIA DOCTORS: “Come home and try our stem cells.”
PATIENT: “I CAN READ. I am sure “they” will be surprised.”
CHENNAI: In February, Shailesh (name changed), a 22-year-old medical student in the US lost his eyesight after swallowing methanol, a toxic alcohol. Doctors there told him that blindness was irreversible. After stem cell therapy in India, Shailesh will soon fly back to the US to literally see his doctors.
He is today able to read and recognise colours. Once back in the US, doctors there would monitor his progress. "I am sure they are going to be surprised," he said. In his medical reports, doctors had said that he had no chances of regaining vision with or without treatment as his optic nerve had suffered irreversible damage.
Stem cell therapy is still part of clinical trials for ocular diseases in the US, but is not yet recommended as a treatment. In India, therapeutic experiments are less restrictive.
On February 24, Shailesh came to Chennai for treatment. He met stem cell therapist Dr Himanshu Basnal of the Institute of Spinal Injury and Stem Cell Research, Rudrapur and Laksha Hospital in Chennai. The Indian Council of Medical Research has allowed some hospitals to go ahead with stem cell research.
Doctors injected 120 ml of stem cells near the patient's optic nerve. These cells were drawn from his bone marrow. Stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized cells. After the first shot, Shailesh showed improvement, and procedure was repeated. "These stem cells have managed to regenerate the cells in the optic nerve. He is able to read with glasses now," said Dr Basnal, who will soon present the case for peer review in a medical journal.
Senior opthalmologists in the city said if proven, the therapy would be a boon for patients who suffer optic nerve damage due to trauma or diabetes. "But, before being adopted as a therapy, a clinical trial on larger groups of patients should be done," said a senior opthalmologist.
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(Not possible in CorpAmerika where profits overrule saving lives)
Seville, Spain, Mar 8, 2011 / 02:04 pm (CNA/Europa Press).- A four-year-old girl has become the first patient in Spain to recover from brain cancer after being treated with stem cells from her own umbilical cord blood.
The announcement of the girl's recovery came March 7 from the company Crio-Cord, a stem cell bank in Spain.
Alba was born healthy in 2007, but at age two she was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. Her treatment consisted of extracting the majority of the tumor from her brain. She was then given chemotherapy to reduce and eventually eliminate the remainder of the tumor.
Alba's blood system was destroyed during the final round of chemo, thus requiring a transplant of cord blood stem cells.
The procedure was carried out in 2009 by Dr. Luis Madero of the Department of Oncology and Hematology at the Nino Jesus Hospital in Madrid.
Today, four year-old Alba is a healthy girl.
Periodic Reviews
Sixty days after the transplant, Alba was given new stem cells taken from her peripheral blood in order to accelerate the production of platelets. Fourteen months after the transplant, her blood system was completely restored, and she has since enjoyed a normal life.
Dr. Madero called her case unique in Spain. “The use of stem cells to regenerate the blood system is an extended treatment for this form of cancer,” he said. What makes her case unique, he added, “is that for the first time in our country, the stem cells came from a patient’s own umbilical cord, preserved from birth.”
“In recent years, transplants of cord blood stem cells have become increasingly common. In the case of siblings, these stem cells are the best therapeutic option that exists,” he said.
“Our best investment”
Alba’s father, Santiago, who is a computer engineer, and her mother, Teresa, a literature professor, agreed that keeping the blood from Alba’s umbilical cord was the “best investment” they ever made.
Santiago said he had previously seen a report “on the treatment for Parkinson’s using stem cells … and was sympathetic to the idea of using stem cells to treat degenerative diseases.”
“Keeping the umbilical cord is a wager for the future, a life insurance policy that you don’t know if you will need but that could save a life,” Teresa added.
The head of Crio-Cord, Guillermo Munoz, also said he was pleased at the results of the therapy. He noted that the organization was “proud to have participated in Alba’s healing process.”
Cases like these confirm “that umbilical cord blood is an excellent source of stem cells. Being the youngest cells of their kind in the human body, they have great potential to cure,” Munoz explained.
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Hope stems for man with lung disease
Two years after Uadayan Patel, 66, decided to become a ‘guinea pig’ for an experiment to use fat-derived stem cell therapy to find a cure for his chronic lung disease, he has no regrets. For Patel, the relatively unknown therapy offered a slim hope for his degenerative disease — idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) — which causes the lungs to become scarred and stiffened leading to progressive difficulty in breathing.
It was in March 2009 that Patel, a psychoanalyst, started suffering from frequent bouts of dry cough. Soon, he was unable to walk even ten steps without gasping for breath. “I was unable to talk for more than two minutes. All my physical activities were restricted,”
Despite medication, Patel’s health suddenly deteriorated in November 2009 and he was put on oxygen therapy to boost the supply of oxygen to his blood stream.
“There is no known treatment to reverse the progression of IPF and life expectancy from the time of diagnosis is only three to five years,” said pulmonologist, Dr Pratibha Singhal, who is treating Patel.
With the option of a lung transplant ruled out, as it would require an extended stay abroad, Patel was desperate for options.
When a friend told him about the Cooperage-based Kasiak Research, which was doing research on the efficacy of stem cells derived from body fat to cure chronic illnesses such as diabetic foot ulcers and liver disease, he decided to take a chance.
“I didn’t want to die. I told them that I was willing to risk the new therapy and signed the consent form.”
Last May, fat (adipose) was extracted from Patel’s body from which the stem cells were isolated and injected back into his body, said Vijay Sharma, a scientist at Kasiak. Since the stem cells are derived from the patient’s body, the risk of an allergic reaction was negligent.
Now, Patel’s lung function tests, oxygen saturation on exercise and psychical activities have shown significant improvement, said Dr Singhal.
“My capacity to walk and talk has improved significantly. I no more feel the unnerving breathlessness and tiredness. I do weights at the gym, can drive my car and eat out at restaurants,” said Patel.