StemCellsChina.com
Fill out my online form.
Featured News
| Adult Stem Cells Used to Treat MS |
 |
 |
| Multiple Sclerosis | |||
| Marţi, 26 Februarie 2008 08:00 | |||
|
There are no translations available. Source: King 5 News By Jean Enersen After Barry Goudy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, he began losing feeling in his left leg, then his vision started to go. "You sit and you cry and you wonder why you and then I went back to my neurologist and said tell me how I can fight this," he said. Barry enrolled in a clinical trial in 2003. After five days of chemotherapy to destroy his immune system doctors used his own stem cells to rebuild it. "I have no symptoms of MS. I do no treatment for MS, I do no shots," he said. Researchers at Northwestern University reviewed the outcomes of about 2,500 cases. They found that adult stem cells appear to be putting some patients with autoimmune diseases in remission and are offering new hope to heart attack patients. "It's a whole new approach to these diseases. Rather than just surgery or drugs that you can use, a cellular approach that seems in many different studies to be benefiting the patient," said Dr. Richard Burt. The transplant appears to be very safe. "There's very low risk. Less than 1 percent mortality from the procedure," said Dr. Burt. Barry now leads an active lifestyle, and even coaches an ice hockey team. "I've had five years of good life. Five years. If I didn't do the transplant I would probably be in a wheelchair today," he said. He knows there are no guarantees about how long his remission might last, but he says he's living proof adult stem cell transplants do work. Some of the earliest work on adult stem cells and MS was done in Seattle. A study is now underway at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
|
|||
| LAST_UPDATED2 |