Blog originally posted 3 November 2010.
With so much information available about stem cells on the internet, one of the greatest challenges for patients and their carers is trying to get the full facts – especially when contemplating experimental or unproven therapies.
As regular readers of this blog will know (see
Beware of Dr Google), the ASCC has been concerned for some time about overseas clinics and companies advertising treatments using stem cells to patients before they are proven safe or effective through regular medical and scientific routes. In response we released our
Patient Information Handbook in December 2009 and have worked closely with our international colleagues to monitor progress in the field and shine a light on potentially unsafe and inappropriate uses of stem cells.
Within the last month there has been two news reports about serious complications arising from treatment at clinic in Germany, both involving children. One story featured in the UK’s Telegraph,
Baby death scandal at stem cell clinic which treats hundreds of British patients a year, investigates the death of a child following treatment at the clinic. Another related story appeared in
WirtschaftsWoche (a leading German weekly business news magazine) with the English translation below (kindly provided by the
Stem Cell Network North Rhine Westphalia):
Just because a treatment is being offered in a country like Germany - with a first rate health care system - it does not necessarily mean that all treatments being offered there are risk free and have the necessary proof that it works.
Death forces authorities to place restrictions on the Düsseldorf company X-Cell
by Susanne Kutter, October 16, 2010
Cornelis Kleinbloesem is a shrewd entrepreneur. For almost a year now,
patients with incurable diseases, and parents with mentally and
physically handicapped children have been travelling from all over the
world to receive treatment at his Xcell-Center in Düsseldorf. There,
they hope for a cure for themselves or their children from the stem cell
therapy that he and his team of doctors offer – at a cost of up to
18,500 Euro. Serious stem cell researchers have just begun carrying out
studies to test the effectiveness of such treatments, and now consider
the belief that the XCell treatment can succeed to be utopian.
Kleinbloesem’s claims of success could now be his downfall. Some of
the 3,500 treatments he asserts have been carried out have gone terribly
wrong. Stem cells were injected into the brain of an 18-month-old boy,
who hours later collapsed and died in the children’s neurosurgery ward
of the Helios Clinic in Krefeld. “The medical records have been
confiscated,” verified Düsseldorf District Attorney Christoph Kumpa. A
doctor at X-Cell had previously injected stem cells into the brain of a
10-year-old boy from Azerbaijan last Easter, causing cranial bleeding
that almost killed him. The family is currently filing suit with the
Düsseldorf District Attorney’s Office (WirtschaftsWoche 16 and 32/2010).
Three further near-catastrophes are also known to have come to the
attention of WirtschaftsWoche.
Kleinbloesem and his dubious stem cell
therapies fall into a legal gray area, and will continue to do so until
at least the end of this year. Since this death, however, even
authorities who previously saw no possibility for intervention have
become active.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen, the organization responsible
for stem cell issues nationwide, has drawn up an experts’ report that
categorizes the use of stem cells, at least in the brain, as
questionable and therefore forbidden. Excerpts have been made available
to WirtschaftsWoche: “According to current scientific understanding, the
Xcell-Center’s stipulated use of stem cell treatments has damaging
effects that far exceed any tenable limits within medical science.” The
state authorities have set a deadline for the company to react to these
allegations – the first step on the way to prohibiting the therapy. The
Dominikus Hospital in Düsseldorf-Heerdt (two floors of which have been
leased out to XCell for a period of ten years) is also distancing itself
from the company: “XCell wanted to work more closely with us in
children’s anaesthesia and intensive care, but we refused,” said
Hospital Manager Verena Hölken.
XCell did not respond to questions posed by WirtschaftsWoche, but
Kleinbloesem did react. He fired the doctor who had operated on the
children and announced to authorities that his clinic will no longer
perform treatments on the brain. In fact, a few days ago his employees
sent a family from Spain back home again, explaining to them that, “The
German government has forbidden this treatment.”
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Update
The
Stem Cell Treatment Monitor, a blog run by Doug Sipp which seeks to shine a light on unproven stem cell treatments, is reporting that the German clinic referred to in the article by Suzanne Cutter (above) has now been closed.
On Sunday 8 May 2011 the UK's Sunday Telegraph, who has also been closely following this story posted an article containing more information:
Europe's largest stem cell clinic shut down after death of baby.
Want more information on stem cells? Try our Patient Handbook, Fact Sheets or contact us here.