China: Many people die from stem cell therapy

Desperate before incurable diseases, many patients went to hospitals in China to treat "stem cell therapy" . However, experts believe that this treatment is not or very little scientific endorsement and only good results through tests.

Pay money to buy death

Hong Chun, a Chinese hotel manager who struggled with the use of chopsticks after a small stroke, had to go to a large hospital in Shanghai for treatment. Here, doctors injected into his spinal cord and buttock a drug they called stem cells donated.

When he left the hospital the next day, Mr. Hong, 27, still felt sick and decided to go to another hospital. But the doctors were unable to save the situation because he died of brain death a month later.

Another similar case, suffering from the pain of end-stage cirrhosis caused by the hepatitis B virus, 63-year-old Fan Hongkun was persuaded to the point that she believed her body would develop itself. a healthy liver if stem cells are implanted.

Stem cell therapy only gives good results in clinical trials.

"We saw this therapy advertised online and talked to the doctor over the phone. He said that stem cells are like seeds, after being transplanted on the liver, they will grow," he said. dividing, spreading and eventually forming a healthy liver, "said Zhou Junjie, her son Fan.

Ms. Fan went to Beijing Army General Hospital in hopes of curing the disease. Here doctors stopped giving her four weeks of lamivudine to "prepare for stem cell therapy". However, she fell into a coma before the doctor could treat it.

Some of these cases involve large general hospitals, where patients pay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars for advertised treatments online. The patient was discharged with little or no progress, even some died.

According to the bill that Reuters had, Hong had to pay 30,000 yuan ($ 4,800) for the 455 Hospital in Shanghai for treatment last year.

Hong's father, Mr. Hong Gensho went to Shanghai to ask for an explanation. However, the hospital management said that his son did not die in their hospital and paid him 80,000 yuan and asked him not to sue the case.

There is not enough scientific evidence

Many experts have warned patients to seek clinics and hospitals in China, Mexico, India, Turkey, Russia and some other countries to treat stem cell therapy that has not been tested. Clinical and not recognized as standard regimen.

"Stem cell tourism is considered a moral problem because patients treated with therapy have not been authenticated according to unreliable sources." So did Dr. David Resnik of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Zubin Master at the University of Alberta Canada in an article published in the European Journal of Molecular Biology.

Sharing similar concerns, Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute said he had received many requests from treatment patients in China and Brazil for Alzheimer's diseases. to spinal cord injury.

"What I want to say is that the treatments lack legal status, have not even undergone clinical trials, but are therapies that are marketed directly . We really have no idea to do so. to use stem cells for these treatments , Daley told Reuters.

Researchers believe that regenerative medicine will be a powerful therapeutic in the future. Stem cells are immature, immature cells in the body that can develop into any type of human cell or tissue. Scientists are also studying how to use them to treat a variety of diseases and disorders, including diabetes, cancer and trauma.

But now, they emphasize that only one form of stem cell therapy has been proven effective.

'Only bone marrow transplants for diseases such as lymphoma, leukocytes are firmly certified and have clear clinical procedures. Other diseases have not yet reached that level, " said David Siu, a cardiology associate professor at Queen Mary Hospital of Hong Kong.

"There is evidence that certain stem cells can develop into new tissue but whether they have a therapeutic effect or not? We have yet to see any evidence. Some just stop at the study. Clinical rescue , "said Siu.

For the cases mentioned in this article - defects caused by stroke and cirrhosis - experts say there is no proven stem cell treatment.

However, testing of stem cell therapies can be done legally for patients, but must be within the framework of clinical trials approved by the hospital regulatory department to ensure that ethical standards are response.

'Patients need to know how they will be treated, which stem cells are used and where they are taken. They should not accept any therapy based on rumors, or not evaluated by specialized agencies , "experts warned.