“Latest Stem Cells News”

Dominick Dunne

Former Hollywood producer Dominick Dunne died at the age of 83 after a long battle with bladder cancer. In past year he traveled to the Dominican Republic and Germany for stem cell treatments.

In the past year, Dunne had traveled to Germany and the Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer. He wrote that he and actress Farrah Fawcett were in the same clinic in Bavaria but didn’t see each other. Fawcett, a 1970s sex symbol and TV star of “Charlie’s Angels,” died in June at age 62.

In the Chicago Tribune, Liz Smith, a friend, wrote the day before Mr. Dunne’s death:

“The writer Dominick Dunne returned from a trip to Germany for stem cells, etc., but he has been in Roosevelt Hospital since getting back. He says he doesn’t feel too spry but I notice he has been receiving movie stars and VIPs in his room. He was to be moved to his apartment last Friday. We wish him all the best and are glad to report that his sons, Alex and Griffin are with him 100 percent.”

(…)

read full story on examiner.com or the new york observer

“Gianvito Martino, the head of the Neurosciences division at the Institute of San Raffaele in Milan in a speech at Multiple Sclerosis Week, which took place from May 23-31, warned against “trips of hope to clinics that promise effective treatments using stem cells”.

According to Martino, who coordinated a Consensus Conference on last Tuesday in London on the neurodegenerative disease, where the guidelines for pre-clinical studies and clinical treatments with stem cells were defined, “hundreds of Italian patients each year go on these trips due to cures that are promised. In the best-case scenario, these patients return in the same condition in which they departed, but with a little bit less money. However, there are also many cases of infections and tumors.”

These stem cell clinics are found in various countries all over the world, including China, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Manila, and Barbados. “They assure 40%-50% effectiveness and that they are able to treat any type of problem, from baldness to Alzheimer’s as well as muscular sclerosis, but they do not say anything about the type and quality of stem cells that they use. They use the placebo effect to indicate very few positive outcomes, but in the end, no one knows what is responsible for the cures.” Martino thinks that in many cases patients are given water instead of stem cells, or cortisone in order to give a few days of perceived improvements and to feed the illusion.

PROTECTIVE EFFECT ON BRAIN BEING STUDIED- Stem cells could represent a new opportunity to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis. Soon they will be used in testing since they are the target of many different research teams in fighting this debilitating disease. Among these is a research team at the scientific university institute at San Raffaele in Milan led by Martino, which has been working for years to understand if it is possible to use stem cells to cure diseases that strike the central nervous system with a strong inflammatory reaction provoking progressive and irreversible destruction of nerve tissue with extremely serious results (muscular sclerosis).

Martino spoke about the state of the research today in Milan at a presentation for National Multiple Sclerosis Week, a disease that strikes mainly young individuals between the ages of 20 and 30 and women. During the meeting, the new campaign to raise funds for the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (AISM) was presented. ‘Fastforworld’, a request to support AISM’s activities, is directed at private citizens and businesses to “speed up research efforts”. In an experiment conducted on mice, the scientists at San Raffaele observed “nerve stem cells protect the central nervous system from damage that is typical of multiple sclerosis, acting as powerful natural ‘pharmaceuticals’,” explained Martino.

It seems that these stem cells kill the blood cells that cause inflammation, saving the healthy cells present in the inflamed nerve tissue. Their role is basically a sort of natural anti-inflammatory. “The studies of the Neuroimmunology unit at San Raffaele,” continued Martino, “have demonstrated that brain stem cells, if manipulated in vitro before being injected in vivo intravenously or intracerebrally, are able to selectively reach areas of the brain and the bone marrow that have been damaged and are able to repair them by releasing soluble anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective factors.”

These studies, warned the expert, “have given positive results in laboratory animals, but there are still many unknowns and it is necessary to reduce risks and avoid that patients unknowingly become victims of uncontrolled experiments.” The turning point will be transferring the results obtained in the lab to human beings. San Raffaele should start on this long journey in the next few months. They will first have to demonstrate that these stem cells do not put the patient at any risk. Once their safety has been proven, a study on the efficiency of the therapy will begin.

Stem cell therapy holds promise for the treatment of almost all human diseases, from spinal cord injuries to damage caused by heart attacks. Stem cells are the cells in our body that have the potential to “grow up” to be any type of cell in the body. But organs are more than just collections of cells. They’re highly organized collections of a multitude of cells.

All treatments with stems cells are still experimental, and therefore the risks of this treatment are not completely understood. Clinical trials are monitored in the United States by academic and government agencies to help protect research subjects. We are not familiar with the safety measures in place to protect research subjects in the Dominican Republic, and I am unaware of a stem cell pulmonary hypertension protocol in the Dominican Republic. Information about research protocols from around the world and information on how to enroll in such a trial can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov.

from USnews

SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic (CNN) — This Caribbean city already known for cigars, furniture, chocolate and coffee may become a magnet for Americans seeking controversial stem cell therapy for life-threatening illnesses if a Florida cardiologist has his way.

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved this stem cell therapy in the United States because no clinical trials to prove its effectiveness have been done. But Dr. Zannos Grekos says his company, Regenocyte Therapeutic, has successfully used adult stem cells to treat patients with heart and lung disease.

Grekos said he and his associates draw blood from a patient in Florida and then send it to a laboratory in Israel that produces what his company calls “regenocytes.” The company defines regenocyte as “a stem cell that has been activated to become a target organ.” (…)

But Grekos’ procedures have not been reviewed by other researchers, and leading scientists involved in U.S. stem cell research efforts say Grekos is simply wrong. Dr. Irving Weissman, president-elect of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, told CNN, “There is no such cell. There is nothing called a ‘regenocyte.’ ”

“As a stem cell scientist who works in the field of regenerative stem cells, I am disappointed and shocked that somebody would prey on a family that has an untreatable disease with the promise of a therapy that has no scientific or medical basis,” Weissman said.

Grekos has a busy practice in Bonita Springs, Florida, outside Naples, and runs a company that promotes and administers stem cell therapies in Santiago, a noisy, crowded industrial city in the central Dominican Republic.

He told CNN that in the past 18 months, about 100 patients have received adult stem cell therapy at a Dominican hospital. Most of them have been patients with severe heart disease, while the rest have suffered from chronic lung illnesses, he said.

He said the Israeli laboratories can produce between 40 million and 80 million stem cells from a patient’s blood sample (…)

The procedure is costly. Grekos said he charges $64,500 — none of it covered by insurance. He said the cost is driven by the expense of processing the stem cells, and providing clean rooms and couriers who hand-carry the cells to Israel and back.

A year ago, Barbara McKean of Naples, Florida, paid Regenocyte Therapeutic more than $54,000 for stem cell therapy in the Dominican Republic after suffering from chronic lung disease. She said she believes the therapy was worth the expense (…)

The chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, Dr. Norman Edelman, said he does not doubt the sincerity of patients who believe they have been helped by stem cell therapy. But he added, “There’s an enormous placebo effect in almost all of these cases.” (…)

Stem cell experts who reject his methods “need to be better educated,” he said.

read the full story on CNN

In the Dominican Republic, Dr. Zannos Grekos, a stem cell research doctor, is now helping patients with heart disease and lung diseases with their own Adult Stem Cells as reported on CNN in a special research report.

Adult Stem Cells Helping Heart Disease and Lung Disease

In the last 18 months, Dr. Grekos and his company Regenocyte have treated more than 100 patients for either heart diseases such as congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and angina and lung diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, emphysema and COPD.

The story features Barbara McKean of Naples, Florida. Barbara was suffering from the lung disease, COPD and was treated with her own stem cells.

From the stem cell article:
“Right away, the next morning, I felt a sense of well-being that I hadn’t felt in a long, long time,” McKean said.

“I know that I am living proof that this does work,” she added. “I know that.”

His Eyes Are Wide Shut

Check out this quote from the chief medical officer of the American Lung Association-

The chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, Dr. Norman Edelman, said he does not doubt the sincerity of patients who believe they have been helped by stem cell therapy. But he added, “There’s an enormous placebo effect in almost all of these cases.”

So Dr. Edelman sees a woman, Barbara McKean, featured previously here,  who was on oxygen 24/7 walking around with a cannister and now, after stem cell treatment, is completely off oxygen and he thinks it is the placebo effect? Ridiculous.

Luckily, Barbara’s doctor does not intentionally close his eyes to the obvious:

McKean’s family physician, Dr. Robert Folsom, confirmed to CNN that she had been suffering for many years from an advanced state of COPD, an incurable lung disease. Folsom told CNN he was “quite incredulous” after seeing her condition improve.

Folsom, who said he has been McKean’s family physician for many years, disputed any suggestion that her apparent recovery stemmed from a “placebo effect” — an improvement sometimes seen in patients who are given an inert substance in clinical trials.

“I know about the placebo effect, and her improvement does not seem to be a result of that,” he said.

Stem Cell Therapy- Documenting Results

Dr. Grekos is documenting research data  from his patients treated with their own stem cells and wishes to present it to the FDA at the end of this year.

In the past few days, another stem cell research doctor, Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina, also just presented his results of his stem cell research data for COPD and Emphysema at the annual International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting.

And Dr. Grekos had a parting shot for the “experts” who always try to downplay any adult stem cell success story:

He shrugs off the criticism from people who doubt his claims, saying he — and not they — are on medicine’s cutting edge.

Stem cell experts who reject his methods “need to be better educated,” he said.

original post by Don Margolis

Thanks to stem cell research, a Florida female smoker, Barbara Mckean who was on oxygen 24 hours per day before stem cell therapy using her own Adult Stem Cells is now OFF oxygen totally after the treatment in the Dominican Republic.

Barbara Mckean is now enjoying life after the stem cell research done by cardiologist Dr. Zannos Grekos of the Repair Stem Cell Institute (RSCI) helped Barbara’s COPD repair the damage done in the lungs by years of smoking.

Stem Cell Video for Lung Disease and COPD

In this video, both Barbara and Dr. Zannos Grekos are interviewed about how the stem cell research and treatment helped her COPD and repair the lung disease (source: Fox 4)…