PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsReviewsRadio Review: The Stem Cell Hard Sell

BioNews

Radio Review: The Stem Cell Hard Sell

Published 10 January 2020 posted in Reviews and appears in BioNews 1031

Author

Isobel Steer

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family entwined in coils of DNA (based on the figure of Laocoön from Greek and Roman mythology).

This BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Stem Cell Hard Sell', hosted by Lesley Curwen, aired on 7 January...

This BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Stem Cell Hard Sell', hosted by Lesley Curwen, aired on 7 January. It explored stem cells, their potential for good, as well as the hype that surrounds them. 

Some stem cells can become many types of cells, thus can potentially be used to repair damaged tissues.

We start with Anne who has Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Her immune system has been destroyed by chemotherapy and needs to be rebuilt. She is in hospital, about to receive a stem cell transplant. Enter Dr Majid Kazmi, the Chief of Cancer Services at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital and the Director of the Haematopoetic Stem Cell Transplant Programme at London Bridge Hospital. He pioneered stem cell transplants for MS patients over a decade ago. He speaks about the potential of regenerative stem cell technology. So far, so good, for stem cells. But then things take a darker turn.

Dr Kazmi warns that 'people have jumped on the bandwagon of stem cells' and have started marketing them without evidence.

Curwen jumps from London to the USA to outline the explosion of unproven stem cell treatments there (also called 'regenerative treatments'). She mentions a blog called 'The Niche', written by stem-cell researcher Professor Paul Knoepfler from the University of California (I can attest it is worth a read to those looking for more information, from academia to 'Goop'). 

Professor Knoepfler reports that the hype is exacerbated by researchers too, where some scientists 'cross the line' and portray stem cells as 'almost miraculous or magical'. This, he says, contributes to the problem.

Stem cells can be sourced from other people's umbilical cord blood, or the patient's own fat or bone marrow, and then injected back into the body. These treatments are now being marketed for arthritis, heart disease, cerebral palsy, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and autism. Professor Knoepfler says the science is unsupported – for example, trials may be conducted without placebo controls, or improvement assessed with subjective patient questionnaires. 

Not only is the evidence to justify these treatments lacking, but things can and do go wrong. 

Some patients were infected by the same contaminated batch of umbilical cord blood in 2018. They won their suit against the US company Liveyon. 'Fortunately there have been no deaths from this,' says their lawyer, 'but it's only a matter of time'.

Another example is a 2017 case where three women in Florida paid $5000 to have stem cells, obtained from their own fat, inserted into their eyes to treat the eye condition macular degeneration, for which there is no recognised cure. They were blinded as a result.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tell Curwen of yet another case where a patient had stem cells injected into their spine who subsequently developed a spinal tumour. 

The link between cancer and stem cells is not elaborated on in the programme, which I think required more coverage. Stem cells have a lot in common with tumour cells (eg proliferation, near-immortality, etc), and cancer is one of the obvious potential side effects. 

Dr Sean Morrison researches stem cells and cancer at the University of Texas Southwestern. He attributes regenerative treatment popularity to a 'very strong placebo effect', which is then used by the companies for their marketing testimonials. 'When the patient dies in the end', he adds, 'you never hear anything more about it'.

The FDA is playing catch-up to a mounting problem and has given illegal clinics until the end of the year to comply with regulations. 

But it's not just the USA that has the International Society for Stem Cell Research worried. Professor Megan Munsie from the University of Melbourne, Australia, chairs its ethics committee. She says that globally, 'we don't know who's had what, whether it's affected them, whether it's harmed them'. 

Indeed at this point, listeners may have been wondering, as I was, what exactly is happening in the UK. Curwen had some good news for us: there are no reported cases of donor cells (eg from umbilical cords) being used for treatment in the UK, which reduces the chances of infection. The bad news is that a patient's own cells, usually from liposuction, can be used for private treatments.

The editor-in-chief of the Bone and Joint Journal, Professor Fares Haddad told the BBC that there is a 'sham scientific legitimacy created by those who have a vested interest...creating false hope for patients'. He has personally treated patients who contracted infections and developed blood clots. 

Curwen interviews father and son Howard and Mark, who both went to the Regenerative Clinic in London with joint problems, and regretted it. 'I feel stupid' says Mark. 'I was desperate'. How much difference did the stems cells make? 'None. Like, none,' he says. 

My outrage was further aroused when the chief executive of the Regenerative Clinic Simon Checkley came on the show. When Curwen accuses him of jumping ahead of the science, he argues that the evidence is good but scarce because the field is so new. He throws out statistics (82 percent of 1700 patients have had a 'really good' result, but 10-15 percent don't respond), then dismisses 'scepticism and push-back from the traditionalists'. At this point I half-expected him to do a Michael Gove and say people have had enough of experts! 

More shockingly still, the BBC reveals that a woman was blinded in one eye during treatment for osteoarthritis of the jaw at the Regenerative Clinic. This complication was not reported to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for over a year. Checkley gives us more statistics: 'Our complication rate is 0.05 percent'; 'the CQC rated us good in every category'. 'For legal and ethical reasons, I can't comment on individual cases,' Checkley told the BBC.

Apart from the CQC, what protection is there for patients? In particular, do stem cells count as medicine? If so, they could be regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority. But they don't. Could they be regulated as a transplant, by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA)? Again, no. These products are essentially unregulated - 'a loophole' says Imogen Swann, former head of regulation at the HTA (read her 2008 article at BioNews 465). This loophole was intended to allow for skin grafts, however, the regulations are now in need of an update.

The most disturbing thing I heard as this episode comes to the end, with Curwen's investigation of an unlicensed clinic based in London, Belgrade and Dubai, called the Autism Regenerative Centre which will, for £9500, inject stem cells into the spine or brain of autistic children. The clinic claims it has performed this on 500 children globally, aged as young as three. We hear from a UK mother who spoke to the clinic manager. He promised to 'remap the brain area' of her child with stem cells. 

Professor Declan Murphy at King's College London, a leading authority on autism research, is 'speechless' when told about the clinic's promises. Is injecting stem cells into the spine a 'completely natural treatment', as the clinic website claims? 'It is absolutely not a natural treatment', Professor Murphy says.

This concern about opportunistic commercialisation is also the conclusion of every clinician and scientist interviewed in this thoroughly researched and balanced episode. For me, it highlighted the importance of medical regulations. The future of stem cell treatments is exciting, but we are 'not there yet', concludes Professor Munsie. So if you hear someone promising a stem cell miracle, to quote the FDA advert, 'Don't believe it!'

Sources and References

  • 07/01/2020
    BBC Radio 4
    The Stem Cell Hard Sell
  • 07/01/2020
    BBC News
    The risks behind the hype of stem-cell treatments

Related Articles

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
28 February 2020 • 2 minutes read

Stem cell therapy cures diabetes in mice

by Julianna Photopoulos

Stem cell therapy has been used in mice to functionally cure diabetes for the first time, as published in the journal Nature Biotechnology...

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
31 January 2020 • 2 minutes read

World's first transplant of lab-grown heart muscles

by Jonathan Bestwick

A team of scientists at Osaka University in Japan have carried out the first transplant using lab-grown heart muscle cells...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
17 January 2020 • 2 minutes read

Novel mutations in stem cells of young donors can be passed to recipients

by Emma Laycock

A new study suggests that rare harmful mutations in young healthy donors' stems cells can be passed on to recipients of stem cell transplants, potentially leading to health problems...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
29 November 2019 • 2 minutes read

Stem cells may trigger immune repair to mend hearts

by Dr Rosie Morley

Stem cell therapies may become redundant in repairing cardiac function after a heart attack, suggests a new study in mice...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Reviews
28 November 2019 • 3 minutes read

Radio Review: The Moral Maze Debates the Morality of Genetics (BBC Radio 4 available on iPlayer)

by Joanne Delange

On 6 November, eight individuals with varying views debated the morality of genetics on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
News
15 November 2019 • 2 minutes read

Duchenne gene therapy trial halted after serious reaction

by Charlotte Spicer

A gene therapy trial for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) has been halted after a patient experienced serious side effects...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Comment
26 November 2018 • 3 minutes read

First genome-edited babies: a very different perception of ethics

by Dr Dusko Ilic

Back in 18th century, British physician Dr Edward Jenner tested his hypothesis that harmless cowpox can prevent deadly smallpox disease on a young boy in exchange for a few coins to his poor parents. In 2018, a Chinese researcher Dr He Jiankui tested geno

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
CC BY 4.0
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.
Reviews
10 September 2018 • 4 minutes read

Radio Review: Biohacking — BBC Radio 4

by Dr Alexander Ware

Recent programmes like Biohacking are what help Radio 4 maintain its place atop my ranking of BBC media outlets. I think I'd pay the license fee for it alone...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Radio Review: Sex, Drugs & Lullabies — Men matter

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels

RetiringDentist.co.uk The UK's Leading M&A Company.
easyfundraising
amazon

This month in BioNews

  • Recent
4 July 2022 • 3 minutes read

Podcast Review: Biohacked Family Secrets – The birth of the sperm bank

4 July 2022 • 3 minutes read

Book Review: Why DNA? – From DNA sequence to biological complexity

27 June 2022 • 4 minutes read

Podcast Review: Genetics Unzipped – Have a heart, the science of xenotransplantation

20 June 2022 • 5 minutes read

Documentary Review: Our Father

20 June 2022 • 4 minutes read

Podcast Review: How Far Could Genome Editing Go?

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856