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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