Stemgenex

[duckfan]

Hi,,
I've been reading about stem treatment with a company called Stemgenex. Before we spend thousands and put my husband through another wild goose chase (think CCSVI), I wondered if any of you have information about this.
He tried CCSVI a couple of years ago to no effect or is that affect? I know stem cell treatment is being studied but this company offers treatment now.
Thanks

[JerryD]

I have been following these stem cell replacement treatment6s for 4 years. My opinion is that if these treatments are not done at a big teaching hospital, I wouldn't spend the money. The only stem cell treatments that I have seen that have efficacy have been done at major hospitals in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Germany and Russia. The major names in stem cell treatment treat patients there. Dr. Burt is the big name at Northwestern University in the U.S. Good luck on your search.

[jreagan70]

The Stemgenex treatment is NOT the method you want for stem cell transplantation. This method puts stem cells into the body, but does nothing to stop any new nerve cells that develop from being destroyed by the immune system. MS can continue to destroy nerve cells -- new and old -- unmolested. In theory, a person would have to get stem cell infusions regularly to try to keep ahead of the immune system. (Kind of like having to keep painting your garage every month to try to keep ahead of the graffiti "artists" who keep defacing it.) But for now, this method doesn't do that. So what's the point?

The fact that Stemgenex registers their studies with the NIH to appear on clinicaltrials.gov isn't as impressive as it sounds.

While no stem cell transplant method is a guaranteed cure, and some patients in clinical trials have not gotten any improvement, the method with the best success is one in which the immune system is seriously depleted by chemotherapy before the stem cells are introduced back into the body, so the new nerve cells can develop and prosper without the immune system destroying them. Then, it is hoped, the immune system is "reset" and functions normally.

This is similar to the method used in bone marrow transplants in cancer treatment. Chemotherapy is done first to destroy the existing cancer cells. Otherwise the cells introduced in the transplanted bone marrow would just be wiped out by the cancer cells. Bone marrow transplants aren't done without the chemotherapy first, for a reason. Stem cell transplants for MS work best if done the same way.

Another problem I have with Stemgenex is that their website contains misleading statements. It makes me wonder if their scientists don't really understand how MS works (which isn't good), or whether they do know and are intentionally misleading their site visitors to make their process look like it can do things it can't (which is even worse).

Stem cell transplants for MS can be beneficial, but they have to be done with an effective method, such as described in this release from the NIH about the HALT-MS trial: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/dec2014/niaid-29.htm.

So you can spend thousands of dollars for a treatment that doesn't really have a good design behind it and has a high chance of providing no benefit, or you can spend many thousands of dollars more for a treatment that has a good, scientifically sound basis behind it, with a fairly good chance of effectiveness. If your husband would like to pursue a stem cell transplant, the chemotherapy method sounds like the better way to go.

[duckfan]

Thanks for the good info. I feel like I need to research every treatment for him. He's currently on his 101st Tysabri infusion. He's had no new lesions since starting Ty but the damage was already done. He has severe foot drop and back pain.