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Mar 5, 2008 11:41 am US/Eastern
Adult Stem Cell Treatments A Medical Breakthrough
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Stem cells are already commonly used to treat certain types of cancer, and now they're being looked at to treat many other diseases – from arthritis to diabetes.
Donald Reid is hoping adult stem cells will give him more time.
"There's not many options left for me," says Reid, 57, who suffers from such a bad case of heart disease that he's not a candidate for surgery. Instead, Reid joined an experimental study that will use his own adult stem cells.
The experiment involves a special machine that takes his blood and pulls out his own stem cells, allowing doctors to use to avoid having to take cells from an embryo. Doctors will inject Reid's stem cell directly into his heart, with the hope it will regenerate and revitalize the damaged organ.
Adult stem cells have become standard therapy for treating several types of cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. But according to new research this treatment is now starting to show real promise in treating other diseases.
A review of hundreds of trials in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that adult stem cells have stopped auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis in some patients.
Some heart patients like Michael Carlat have also seen improvements. Carlat was so ill he needed a heart transplant, and after stem cell injections, he's back in the gym with nearly normal heart function.
"Physically I feel good. I can do whatever I want to do, I can play ball if I feel like it," he says. "It's just you know, I never thought being where I was let's say two years ago to now, it's just ridiculous, I never would have thought it, in a million years."
Dr. Michael Schuster of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is excited by the results, but warns it's still early.
"We don't know yet what the best technique is. We don't really know how much of a benefit the patients will have," he says.
Still, some companies believe there's enough promise that they're offering ways for people to collect, freeze, and store their own adult stem cells now in order to be prepared, whatever the studies show.
"We have a safe, non-invasive way that allows you and me today to have our stem cells collected in multiple quantities so that they're there for us in the future when we get sick, regardless of where our health goes," says Dr. Robin Smith, CEO of Neostem.
As for Reid, he had his stem cell heart treatment a week ago, but it's still too soon to tell whether it's helping.
There are about 1,900 clinical trials using these adult stem cells currently. One analyst predicts that within a decade, 2 million treatments a year will be stem cell based, and for diseases ranging anywhere from lupus to arthritis.
In heart disease, adult stem cells could revolutionize therapy for heart failure.
Still, there are some ailments that may nonetheless need embryonic stem cells, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and strokes.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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