Patients guide to treatments | Knoepfler Lab Stem Cell Blog

Top 10 list of important, easy to understand facts for patients about stem cell treatments

For better or worse, I am in the unique position of being a stem cell scientist and also a patient. Looking on the bright side this gives me a unique perspective on things.

I know there are thousands of people out there looking for more practical information about stem cell therapies and treatments. These folks understandably are using the Internet to look for some clear, good info on stem cell treatments either for themselves or their loved ones. Too often the info that is out there is either wrong, misleading, or overly complex.

So in this post I want to address this need speaking as a scientist, patient advocate and cancer survivor in the form of 10 key facts to help you guide your way through the jungle of stuff out there about stem cells.

1) Stem cells are essentially a type of drug or biological and possibly permanent in nature. Yeah, they are extremely unusual drugs, but they are drugs. The FDA considers them drugs. Unlike other drugs, once a patient receives a stem cell drug, it will not necessarily simply go away like other drugs because a stem cell drug consists of living cells that often behave in unpredictable ways. What this means is if the stem cells are doing bad things your doctor has no way to stop it.

2) Like any medical product, even aspirin, stem cells treatments will have side effects. Not maybe. Definitely. Our hope is the side effects will be relatively mild.

3) The only stem cell treatment explicitly approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. is bone marrow transplantation. What this means is that any other stem cell treatment you see advertised on Facebook or Google or elsewhere that indicates it will be given to you inside the U.S. may in fact be illegal and unsafe. The exception to this is if it is part of an FDA-approved clinical trial.

4) If you venture outside the U.S. for a stem cell treatment, use extra caution and have a knowledgeable physician inside the U.S. guiding you. We have to avoid the trap of thinking that only the U.S. can offer advanced medical treatments, but on the other hand within the U.S. you have the added safety of the FDA, which is trying to protect you. In the vast majority of other countries regulatory agencies are practically non-existent or are far less strict than the FDA.

5) Stem cells are not a cure all. I am as excited as anybody about the potential of stem cells to treat a whole bunch of diseases and injuries, but they are not some kind of miracle cure for everything. When a doctor offers to inject some kind of stem cells or a stem cell-derived product into a patient either into the bloodstream or into a specific place that is injured such as a shoulder, we just do not know at this point if it will do any good with the exception of bone marrow transplant.

6) Dont let celebrities be your guide to medical care. The number of famous people getting stem cell treatments is increasing including sports stars and politicians. Dont let what these folks do influence what you decide to do about your health. Just because they are famous do not believe for one minute that they are any more informed than you or your personal doctor about medical treatments or stem cells. If anything I think sometimes famous people are more reckless with their health than average people like you and me.

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Patients guide to treatments | Knoepfler Lab Stem Cell Blog