| Health-Thailand-Stem Cell Therapy, Heart patients head to Bangkok for life-saving stem cell treatment
(by Nareerat Wiriyapong…AFP News) |
BANGKOK, Feb 13, 2007 (AFP) - After years of suffering from
congestive heart failure that caused him seven heart attacks
Douglas Rice from the US state of Washington was told that
he had three months
to live.
But he turned down an artificial heart offered by American
doctors.
"I did not want one. I did not want to be alive like a
machine," the semi-retired entrepreneur told AFP.
Instead he decided to fly to Bangkok for experimental stem
cell therapy that came with a price tag of 30 thousand
dollars.
"I did not hesitate at all. You use your own blood, your own
stem cells, and then they go back to your
own body. I don't see any danger at all," he said.
Rice, 61, is among a growing number of people from around
the world who are seeking out medical treatments that are
unavailable in their home countries.
The stem cell treatment he received is available only in
Thailand, which has no regulations governing such
experimental treatments that offer enormous promise but can
also stir up equally enormous controversy.
This particular procedure avoids the contentious debate over
medical research with embryonic stem cells, in which a human
embryo is usually destroyed to collect the cells, which have
the potential to grow into any kind of tissue.
In the procedure Rice underwent, the stem cells are
collected from the patient's own blood.
Medical experts here could not guarantee that patients won't
suffer side effects, but say that in using patients' own
stem cells, there is less risk.
"Using the patients' owned blood minimises risks of
rejection, although they can have some side effects
as with normal treatments," said Supachai Chaithiraphan,
chairman of Chao Phya Hospital and president of the Heart
Association of Thailand.
"But there were no mortalities from the treatment" in a
study of 65 patients, said Supachai.
"We don't know yet whether the procedure helps patients to
live longer, but it relieves their pain.
We can help them to
have a better quality of life. As a doctor, I think we
should," he said.
Most of the patients are people with such serious heart
disease that every other available treatment has failed
them, according to Israel-based Theravitae, the company that
developed the treatment.
The process begins when half a pint (a third of a litre) of
blood is taken from a patient. The blood is sent to
Theravitae's labs in Israel, where it is processed to
retrieve the stem cells.
The stem cells are then flown back to Bangkok where they are
implanted directly into the patient's heart.
The entire process takes about 10 days, during which the
patient stays in Bangkok, Supachai said.
More than 200 people from around the world have received the
treatment at four hospitals in Bangkok.
"We are looking for three to four more hospital partners to
perform the actual surgery in Thailand this year," said
Narin Apichairuk, president of Theravitae in Thailand. "The
US and Europe are seven to 10 years behind Thailand because
of regulatory requirements."
While everyone agrees that stem cell treatments offer the
potential for enormous medical benefits, critics warn of the
legal and ethical implications of Thailand becoming a
testing ground for the procedures.
"Stem cell research is considered to be another step in the
development of medical science, and is expected to
contribute considerably to cures for patients suffering from
many diseases," said Sawaeng Boonchalermvipas, a medical law
expert at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
"Yet precautions must be taken because of the fact that stem
cell operations remain in clinical trials or at the
preliminary stage of evaluating their positive and negatives
effects, including the legal and ethical implications," he
said.
"In Thailand, stem cell treatments are still at the research
stage. It's a mistake to offer it as an alternative
treatment and to actually use it in regular medical
practices," he said.
Sawaeng said the government should speed up efforts to
develop regulations on stem cell research, and urged the
ethical committees at hospitals to consider each case
carefully, Sawaeng said.
But for patients like Rice, who feel they have run out of
choices, stem cell research could be the only hope for
staying alive.
"I came to this hospital in a wheelchair and walked away,"
said Rice, recalling his pre-surgery condition when, he
said, he couldn't walk or think straight.
"It makes me feel night-and-day different. The stem cells
work very well. There is no reason to be in a position where
you can't feel good."
|
