Results of HSCT trials ?

[JerryD]

Oh, DPL... ! You sound like a conspiracy theorist ! What do you know about the 'Kennedy assassination' ? Don't you know 'Money makes the world go 'round! So we wait until all of this shakes out ! And suffer ! No problem!
There are answers to this ! We just aren't ready for them yet !

[JerryD]

Yeah DPL, I always look to a 'science' journal, like the Economist, for my information about 'new' medical procedures ! That article from January 26th is the best article about HSCT and Dr. Burt that I've read ! Thanks ! Great find ! Good luck

[JerryD]

It looks like this thread has turned into a Tisch MS center/ Dr. Sadiq clinical trial thread. Where's the summary reports of the HSCT trials from Northwestern U./ Dr. Richard Burt. The article in the 'Economist' is the closest thing that I have seen. What about something in the New England Journal of Medicine, etc. ?

[JerryD]

I seem to be the primary contributer to this thread. Here's a new piece of information that I found on the NMSS website.
The information from the outcomes of Dr. Burts HSCT clinical trials says that the patients treated had a 10% failure rate. I didn't find any information about negative side effects or deaths. I think these pieces of information should be widely distributed to all relevant media outlets. And when does this type of therapy begin to be widely available? Still no information about Dr. Sadiq's stem cell therapy at Tisch MS research center!

[Min]

JerryD

I seem to be the primary contributer to this thread. Here's a new piece of information that I found on the NMSS website.
The information from the outcomes of Dr. Burts HSCT clinical trials says that the patients treated had a 10% failure rate. I didn't find any information about negative side effects or deaths. I think these pieces of information should be widely distributed to all relevant media outlets. And when does this type of therapy begin to be widely available? Still no information about Dr. Sadiq's stem cell therapy at Tisch MS research center!

Not sure whether you have seen this information that was on the BBC in UK. Here is the web page http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35065905. Hope I got this right, not a tech nerd just an old lady!!!! Min

[JerryD]

Thanks, Min. Amazing that you are half of the world away from me but you are seeing the same possibilities that I am seeing. If you study the article, you see that Dr. Burt from Northwestern in Chicago ( truthfully Evanston outside of Chicago) has been performing this HSCT procedure since 1995 ( that makes about 20 years) but because of the resistance from 'Big pharma', among others, the patients that could benefit from this procedure are kept in the dark. I would not be surprised to find out that the insurance industry has been suppressing this news. After all, if you know that this procedure costs over $100,000 per patient and there are over 400,000 Americans with MS then the costs to the insurance industry to treat these 400,000 patients would be over $40,000,000. I don't know if my math is correct, but it seems that dollar amount is a serious 'smoking gun' or maybe not !

[J-Bo]

...if you know that this procedure costs over $100,000 per patient and there are over 400,000 Americans with MS then the costs to the insurance industry to treat these 400,000 patients would be over $40,000,000. I don't know if my math is correct, but it seems that dollar amount is a serious 'smoking gun' or maybe not !

Well, I could see the drug companies not liking the competition, but as for insurance companies footing the bill, if they're shelling out like $55K and up for the blockbuster MS drugs over multiple years, that $100,000 starts to look a little better, I'd think. But I've never accused them of making sense. You'd think they'd be falling all over themselves to pay for birth control because babies are really expensive, but you'd be wrong about that.

[KoKo]

Well, I could see the drug companies not liking the competition, but as for insurance companies footing the bill, if they're shelling out like $55K and up for the blockbuster MS drugs over multiple years, that $100,000 starts to look a little better, I'd think.

I agree with J-Bo.

Seems like the cost of the DMT drugs, over time, would cost way more $$$ than a one time stem cell procedure. (Although I really don't know everything involved - follow ups, side effects, etc.?)

[JerryD]

Yes! KoKo, exactly my point for my rantings ! Why don't we know everything about it? Dr. Burt's comments on the BBC program indicated that there is no industry interest in stem cell replacement because there is no way to 'patent' or secure the process for profit! Not bad ! We suffer from a disease that will not be cured because there is no profit in the process for the cure! (I hesitate to use the term 'cure' because that hasn't been accepted, yet)!