Experts Warn" Hundreds Of Clinics Across The World Are Selling Unsafe Stem Cell Ttt To Desperate Pts

• Clinics offering unsafe stem cell treatments have opened up across the world

• Sham medical centres target patients with diseases such mas multiple sclerosis

• Now an international group has called for tighter regulation of 'stem cell tourism'

• Stem cell tourism involves travelling to other countries for untested therapies

Hundreds of sham medical centres stationed abroad are scamming patients looking for a last-ditch cure, experts have warned.

Clinics offering unsafe stem cell treatments have opened up across the world, targeting patients with diseases such multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.

Countries should unite to tackle unscrupulous advertising of unproven therapies involving stem cells, experts said today.

An international group of leading experts has called for tighter regulation of so-called 'stem cell tourism'.

This involves patients travelling to other countries, where medical regulations are less strict, for treatment with potentially unsafe therapies.

Dangerous rise of 'stem cell tourism'
Hundreds of medical centres around the world are offering therapies that involve transplantation of so-called stem cells, which they claim have the ability to repair damaged tissues.

Clinics are marketing the treatment for a range of conditions, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

Often these therapies are advertised directly to patients with the promise of a cure.

But experts said there is often no evidence to show that the treatments will help, or will not cause harm.

Researchers said the practice risks undermining the development of rigorously tested, validated therapies and puts lives at risk.

Call for tighter regulations
Writing in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group has called for coordinated global action to tackle the problem.

Dr Sarah Chan, from the University of Edinburgh, said: 'Many patients feel that potential cures are being held back by red tape and lengthy approval processes.

'Although this can be frustrating, these procedures are there to protect patients from undergoing needless treatments that could put their lives at risk.

'Stem cell therapies hold a lot of promise but we need rigorous clinical trials and regulatory processes to determine whether a proposed treatment is safe, effective and better than existing treatments.'

Stem cell treatments are normally approved after rigorous clinical trials, which can take more than a a decade. Pictured is a 3D illustration of stem cell dividing into two

The researchers said tighter regulations on advertising stem cell therapies are needed.

This is so unsupported claims about potential clinical benefits do not go unchallenged.

Global regulatory authorities should agree international standards for the manufacture and testing of cell and tissue-based therapies, they added.

The group has also called for the World Health Organization to help guide responsible clinical use of cells and tissues, as it does for medicines.

Deadly reality of untested treatments
Their appeal follows the deaths of two children at a clinic in Germany in 2010, which exploited a legal loophole to offer untested treatments. The clinic has since been closed.

Some types of stem cell transplantation – mainly blood and skin stem cells – have been approved to treat certain types of cancer and to grow skin grafts for patients with severe burns.

But these treatments have been rigorously tested in clinical trials, which can take more than a decade.



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