Embryonic Stem Cell Research Nowhere Close to Helping Patients
Friday, October 13, 2006 - Stem Cell Guru
Stem Cell Guy was turned down by MIT when applying to study there. However, SCG has forgiven them and is now proud to present this article about an MIT professor who is not a big fan of embryonic stem cell research. Stem Cell Guy and his colleagues here at Theravitae often are asked by our patients "why don't you use embryonic stem cells?" I'll let Dr. James Sherley of MIT answer that question.
Sherley said that embryonic stem cells cause tumors and cancers when injected into human tissue and, as a result, they can't be used to treat patients with various diseases. He said the tumors form because embryonic stem cells have the potential to turn into various other kinds of tissues -- including the wrong ones.
“When you put them in an environment where they can grow and develop, they make lots of different kind of tissues,” Sherley said, according to a Courier Mail newspaper report.
Sherley said that the "tumor formation property is an inherent feature of the cells" and warned that the possibility of overcoming it is likely very far into the future.
"And although some might say we can solve the tumor problem down the road, that's equivalent to saying we can solve the cancer problem and we may, but that's a long time coming," he explained.
Read the whole thing
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1 Comments:
ugh. i was willing to give you snake oil salesmen the benefit of the doubt. at least you're trying to help people. but since you're going down the road of ES-cells-have-shown-no-promise-yet (maybe because public researchers aren't allowed to even work with them?), IT IS ON.
the MIT guy is right. injecting undifferentiated embryonic stem cells into patients would be a Really Bad Idea. injecting any cells that haven't been carefully studied and treated to ensure that they are not oncogenic into patients is a Really Bad Idea. that's why real scientists test their treatments carefully before exposing real people to them. that's why the american food and drug administration would never, ever approve your "therapy," which consists of injecting poorly-characterized cells into desperate people. for all we know, your cells are tumorigenic, too. you wouldn't really want to put that on your blog, would you?
has your "heart therapy" research been reviewed by scientists? have you done controlled experiments to show that your patients are really getting benefits from the cell treatments, or do you just rely on occasional letters from patients who survive? do you even keep detailed records of what happens to ALL of your patients, so they could be compared to patients who don't receive your treatment by other actual scientists? do they end up better or worse off, statistically?
it's great that you want to help people (so do embryonic stem cell researchers), but the whole "look! a letter from a satisfied customer" thing is about as convincing and scientifically valid as an infomercial. until your work has been proven to work through carefully-done science instead of anecdotes, you really don't have the high ground from which to tell people what works and what doesn't.
so lay off scientists, and i shall lay off snake oil salesmen.
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