German stem cell clinic shut down amidst safety concerns

On Sunday the UK Telegraph reported the closing of a stem cell clinic in Germany that has been the source of international concern. Last year, a clinic offering stem cell cures in Costa Rica was shut down by the country's health ministry.

In both cases, the concern came from claims that injected stem cells would cure a wide range of diseases, even though there is no proof that the cells will be effective. One child who received stem cell injections at the German clinic died last August, and a second child also had complications. His family is suing the clinic.


According to the Telegraph:

A Sunday Telegraph undercover reporter who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair was told last week during a consultation at the XCell-Center that he could walk again.

According to XCell, about 25 British patients a month – including children with severe disabilities – are treated at its clinic in Düsseldorf and at another in nearby Cologne.

The treatment involves taking bone marrow from patients, harvesting stem cells from the bone marrow and then reinjecting those stem cells into other parts of the body, including the brain, the spine and the neck.

The U.S. and other countries regulate clinical trials and demand proof that the proposed treatment is going to be safe and effective before researchers are allowed to try the technique in human patients. That process is slow, but it's also what stands between people and possibly deadly and ineffective therapies. Countries without stringent regulatory controls are now playing host to clinics much like the one in Germany who offer the promise of cures without proof.

The international community has become so concerned about the risk of these clinics that the International Society for Stem Cell Research launched a website offering to investigate claims of stem cell clinics before people spend money to travel overseas (see A Closer Look at Stem Cell Treatments). CIRM also offers information about stem cell tourism on our website.

Last year, CIRM co-sponsored a public seminar in partnership with the ISSCR on the responsible path for delivering stem cell therapies to the clinic. The video of that stem cell tourism seminar is on our website.

Krista Conger at Stanford University School of Medicine recently wrote an excellent piece about stem cell tourism for their magazine, which begins:

On the surface it seems easy. Overseas stem cell “clinics” peddling unproven treatments to desperate and dying patients, charging tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of being injected with mysterious concoctions of cells meant to cure almost every ailment: What’s not to hate?

She goes on to quote CIRM grantee Jeanne Loring of Scripps Research Institute who says desperate patients don't see it that way:

“When we report something good about stem cells, it gets picked up in the media, or in a blog that patients read,” says Jeanne Loring, PhD, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. “It gives them more ammunition to say that the FDA is stupid for denying access to treatments that seem like they should work.”

Loring has been actively involved in educating people about the dangers of stem cell tourism, and participated in this video with CIRM:



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Notes from Calgary: Stem cell hype and medical tourism

CIRM's Senior Officer to the Standards Working Group, Geoff Lomax, is blogging this week from Calgary where his attending the Canadian Stem Cell Network's meeting "Stem Cell Controversies".  

The Stem Cell Network meeting Understanding Stem Cell Controversies is refreshing for its focus on clinical trials and efforts to get basic stem cell research to patients. There is no controversy over the need to develop these treatments, but the process of getting there and how those treatments are understood by the public have raised troubling issues.

Brian Kwon from the University of British Columbia provided a very nice treatment of the issues that emerge in trying to move stem cell-based therapies to the clinic. Areas he emphasized were the types of evidence required before engaging in clinical trials and the challenge of evaluating how effective the therapies were over time. Although these issues are relevant in the development of any new therapy, stem cell therapies have some additional features that need to be taken into account before they can be tested in people. One example is the need to prove absolutely that the cells are safe before trials begin.

One recurring theme among the presenters has been concerns over “stem cell hype” and “medical tourism.” It was noted that patients will frequently inquire about stem cell treatments for a range of illness and injury. Speakers suggested this “hype” may be attributed, in part, to the many products incorporating stem cells (or at least suggesting on the label). Data indicate there is a growing promotion of direct-to-consumer stem cell treatments, and the claims in these promotions are not supported by scientific evidence. Tim Caulfield reported on his research indicating the average cost of an unverified, direct-to-consumer “stem cell treatment” is $24,350.

There was recognition among the speakers of the need to provide the public with more complete information about:

• The status of cell/stem cell treatments for specific diseases
• The risks of certain interventions
• Points to consider when evaluating treatments

Independent resources like CIRM's stem cell tourism page and the International Society for Stem Cell Research website A Closer Look At Stem Cell Treatments were viewed as important counter weights to the numerous web sites promoting miracle cures to our ailments.

Here's a video CIRM produced about stem cell tourism, featuring Jeanne Loring of the Scripps Research Institute:



- Geoff Lomax

Stem Cell Tourism in the news

The issue of stem cell tourism has gotten a lot of attention in the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, the Costa Rica health ministry closed down a clinic offering unproven stem cell therapies (here is our blog entry on this event, and a video about stem cell tourism). Last week, CIRM and ISSCR co-hosted a public seminar on stem cell tourism, at which the ISSCR revealed their fantastic new site alerting the public to the issue of stem cell tourism.

The new ISSCR site has some useful content, but also allows people to enter the name of a clinic which the ISSCR will then investigate and report on. People should bookmark the site and pass it along to friends or family members who are considering traveling for unproven stem cell therapies.

Finally, last week a woman died from complications resulting from a stem cell transplant in Thailand to treat a kidney disease. Many publications carried stories about her death, including Discover, which wrote:

The woman suffered from lupus nephritis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the kidneys. When medications no longer controlled her disease, she went to a still-unnamed clinic in Bangkok where doctors said they could treat her disease using stem cells drawn from her own bone marrow.

New Scientist and Nature also both carried stories about this case.

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