Lunes, Disyembre 3, 2012

Unlocking the powers of STEM CELL THERAPY from aesthetics to cancer cure


By Ramil Gulle and Joyce Alumno

Even if one takes away the hype, there are a lot of reasons to feel hopeful and excited about stem cell therapy. Aside from the rejuvenating wonders that celebrities talk about, stem cells, when gathered from safe sources and used the right way, present effective treatments for a variety of diseases, including Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis to Type 1 Diabetes, to many types of cancers (even leukemia) and heart disease, to plastic and reconstructive surgery, and many orthopedic ailments.

At least five hospitals in the Philippines have departments dedicated to stem cell therapy. The Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory at the Makati Medical Center, the Institute for Personalized Molecular Medicine at The Medical City, National Kidney Institute’s Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory in collaboration with Lung Center of the Philippines, and St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Stem cell facilities of these five Philippine hospitals use stem cells from the safest known sources: bone marrow and peripheral blood from the patient himself or herself, or from human umbilical cord blood.  In cases where the patient, for one reason or another (the patient is too young, or too old and frail), cannot use his or her own stem cells, donor stem cells are harvested, usually from siblings, parents and other close relatives.

As mentioned earlier, stem cells must come from the safest sources possible to achieve the best treatment results. Besides bone marrow and peripheral blood, another safe option is umbilical cord blood.

One provider of cord blood and tissue banking services in the Philippines is CordLife Philippines. It is, in fact the first and only cord blood processing and cryopreservation facility in the country that is built according to global standards. It is ISO-certified and registered with the Philippines Department of Health.

CordLife Philippines is part of CordLife Limited, a network of state-of-the-art stem cell banks in the Asia-Pacific region that has facilities in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

 American cancer survivor Dr. Sumathei Selvaretnam with Dr. Sam Bernal narrating her experience in getting stem cell treatment in the Philippines and how the therapy saved her life more than seven years ago.


Futuristic cures

Neurosurgeon Eric Flores, M.D., head of the Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory of Makati Medical Center, has said that stem cell therapy is “the future of medicine.”   Molecular biologist and oncologist Sam Bernal, M.D. who heads The Medical City’s  Institute of Personalized Molecular Medicine, has said that stem cell therapy ushers in the age of truly personalized molecular medicine—meaning, medical science is moving in a direction where treatments are customized to the individual patients using medicine that is engineered at the molecular level.

According to Bernal, stem cell therapy begins with a “molecular profile” of a patient. “No two cancers are alike. Each cancer patient is unique. In order to find the exact cure to that patient’s cancer, we look at the molecules of that patient’s  tumor, for example, and find the right medication and the right treatment that is customized to treat that tumor,” he said.

Cancer bombs

The way stem cells work against cancer is a lot like science fiction warfare, as Bernal tells it. First, the stem cells are engineered to become what are called dendritic cells. These dendritic cells have been engineered based on the molecular profile of a patient’s cancer cells. When these specialized dendritic cells are released in the patient’s body, they start hunting the cancer cells. These dendritic cells are very specific: it’s like a lock-and-key mechanism. These dendritic cells will only lock-on to the cancer cells that they were designed to identify and search for. Once both dendritic cells and cancer cells lock on, the dendritic cells activate the patient’s T-cells.

The T-Cells are the immune systems hunter-killer cells. The dendritic cells that lock on the cancer cells allow the T-Cells to find the cancer cells. Once a T-Cell finds a cancer cell, it engulfs the latter. The T-Cell then releases hydrogen peroxide “bombs” into the capture cancer cell, which causes the cancer cell to explode.

“We get cancer all the time,” said Bernal, “but most of the time, our immune system finds these cells and destroys them.  However, there are cases where the immune system fails to recognize cancer cells. When the immune system fails to do so, that’s when cancer develops and spreads and becomes a life-threatening illness. So, essentially, stem cell therapy boosts the body’s capacity to identify and destroy cancer cells that were previously unrecognized.”
Bernal pointed out however, that stem cell therapy is presently used as an adjunct to chemotherapy. So has to undergo both chemotherapy and stem cell therapy for the most effective treatment.

On the other hand, according to Dr. Flores, stem cell therapy also helps a cancer patient recover from chemotherapy’s toxic side effects. According to him, stem cells are “used to repopulate the blood and bone marrow with normal blood elements after ablative chemotherapy in the treatment of such conditions as leukemia, multiple myeloma Hodgkin’s and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.” Thus, the cancer patient undergoing stem cell therapy is able to tolerate chemotherapy better.

Two patients who underwent stem cell therapy in the Philippines are Sumathei Selvaretnam, M.D. an Internist from Florida, USA, and Ateneo Professor Ed Morato, Ph.D.
Dr. Sumathei had been diagnosed with ovarian, kidney and pancreatic cancer. She underwent her stem cell therapy and chemotherapy at The Medical City and she is now in remission. “As a doctor, I was understandably worried about my condition when I received my diagnosis. But I am happy that with this new treatment, I was able to go into remission and hopefully, I will continue to be in remission,” she said.

Professor Ed Morato, Ph.D. did not have cancer but he did have a serious heart condition that made him very weak and out of breath. It was so serious that one cardiologist he consulted basically told him to prepare for death—that he should create his “bucket list” and do the things he always wanted to do before dying. At the time, his breathing was so difficult that he had an oxygen tank in his bedroom. He needed to breathe in the oxygen from the tank every night when he slept.

Morato, however, refused to give up. He heard about stem cell therapy at a party and decided to give it a try. “I have always been intuitive about my health. So when I felt that stem cell therapy was right for me, I did it even though my other doctor had already given up on me. Today, Morato has recovered from his heart condition enough and is able to go back to teaching and he no longer needs his oxygen tank.

These amazing recoveries from serious illness are just a few of the successful cases of stem cell therapy. Dr. Flores of the Makati Med talks about one-year-old children awaken from a coma after stem cell treatment, walk a year later, and attend school as if nothing happened in 3-4 years. He also said that back pain and degenerative joint conditions have been eased significantly by stem cell therapy, as well.

Amazing as stem cell looks for now, even more amazing treatments are on the way as medical science further harnesses the power of these cells in step with the progress of the medical science and technology behind it.


HOW SAFE IS STEM CELL THERAPY?

Stem cell therapy is getting a lot of buzz nowadays thanks to stories from the media about how Filipino celebrities, including politicians, are availing of its benefits. This treatment, which involves injecting stem cells into the human body, is being offered as a treatment for cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. It’s also being used to counter the signs of aging: making skin healthier and wrinkle-free and rejuvenating the body’s organs for more youthful vitality.

There are several sources for the stem cells that are being used to treat patients. These include bone marrow and peripheral blood—usually taken from the patient himself or herself—and from umbilical cords. All of these, the bone marrow, blood and umbilical cords, are taken from human sources.

However, there are also cell therapy treatments that use, believe it or not, animal cells. Proponents of this therapy claim that these animal cells are “purified” and are therefore safe for injection into human patients. These sources of cells or stem cells, however, are still controversial. In short, they do not have a track record of safety or effectiveness when it comes to treating human illnesses or the signs of aging.

Recently, Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona gave out a warning related to the use of cell therapy. According to him, not all sources of stem cells are equal: there are those that still have no evidence of being safe or effective for use in patients.

Secretary Ona said that there are only three sources of stem cells that have a record of proven safety and effectiveness: human bone marrow, human peripheral blood; and human umbilical cords.

“We already know today that the safest and most effective cellular preparations are those that use the patient’s own cells—called autologous human cells. Thousands of patients worldwide have been treated over several decades with autologous human cells and their safety and efficacy is well established, especially those derived from bone marrow and peripheral blood. Umbilical cord stem cells also have a long track record of safety and efficacy,” he said.

All other sources besides these, according to him, must be treated with caution:

“In the meantime, the public should be careful about receiving cell preparations that are being offered in the Philippines and elsewhere, such as embryonic, aborted fetal, genetically altered, and especially animal stem cells,” he said.

Secretary Ona also said that these sources of stem cells “still need strict regulatory assessment before they are allowed for human use in the Philippines” and that he has formed a special task force to develop guidelines on the regulation and use of stem cell therapy in the country.

Other doctors have also warned against the use of animal cells for the treatment of human diseases.

In its website, The American Cancer Society says that the use of animal cells in humans carries a lot of risks.

“Cell therapy may be dangerous, and several patient deaths linked to the therapy have been reported in the medical literature. Patients can contract bacterial and viral infections carried by the animal cells, and some have had life-threatening and even fatal allergic reactions. Other reports list complications such as brain swelling or the immune system attacking blood vessels or nerves following cellular treatment. Serious immune system reactions resulting in death have also been reported. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding should not use this method, as its possible effects on a fetus are unknown.”

The American Cancer Society also differentiates between the use of animal cell therapy from the use of human cell therapy:

“It is important to distinguish between this alternative method involving animal cells and mainstream cancer treatments that use human cells, such as bone marrow transplantation.”

Furthermore, the American Cancer Society says there is still no solid evidence that the use of animal cells in humans is actually effective.

“None of the therapeutic success claimed by cell therapists has been documented through scientific testing and published in peer-reviewed medical journals. Claims of the therapy’s success take the form of individual cases, testimonials, and publicity issued by practitioners of the therapy. Even supporters of cell therapy admit they do not know how cell therapy works in the body. No reliable evidence has been published in medical journals to support the claims of cell therapy.”

All told, it is very important for every patient to distinguish between animal stem cell therapy and human stem cell therapy because only the latter is recommended for use in the Philippines because of its proven safety and benefits.

REFERENCES:
·         http://www.mad-cow.org/jul99_news.html#ddd  “Sheep cell injections 'of no benefit to children”

·        Unproven methods of cancer management: Fresh cell therapy. CA -- A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 41:126-128,1991.

·         Slide presentation, Institute for Personalized Molecular Medicine, The Medical City

·         “Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory and Stem Cell Treatment Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)”, Makati Medical Center

·         “MakatiMed’s Cancer Center celebrates first year with launch of Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory: New laboratory sets the standard for world-class treatment”

·         “Cellular Therapy”  http://chealth.canoe.ca/columns.asp?columnistid=3&articleid=2902


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