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Sufferers from the debilitating bowel condition Crohn‘s disease may be cured using a groundbreaking stem cell treatment, according to the British doctor leading the research.
Initial findings from the world’s first controlled trial of the procedure have raised hopes that it could banish the disease’s symptoms for many years in up to half of the patients who undergo it.
The pioneering therapy involves “rebooting” the patient’s immune system, by first destroying the cells that have attacked it to cause the Crohn’s, and then replacing them.
Professor Chris Hawkey, a gastroenterologist at Nottingham University, is leading the Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Crohn’s Disease (Astic) trial. So far, 15 patients from six European countries, including three Britons, have taken part, though others are being recruited.
“I’m hopeful that half or more of the patients who undergo stem cell transplantation may either be cured or have a long-term remission,” said Hawkey.
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