Unproven Stem Cell Treatments Blind 3 Women (npr.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Scientists have long hoped that stem cells might have the power to treat diseases. But it's always been clear that they could be dangerous too, especially if they're not used carefully. Now a pair of papers published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine is underscoring both the promise and the peril of using stem cells for therapy. In one report, researchers document the cases of three elderly women who were blinded after getting stem cells derived from fat tissue at a for-profit clinic in Florida. The treatment was marketed as a treatment for macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness among the elderly. Each woman got cells injected into both eyes. In a second report, a patient suffering from the same condition had a halt in the inexorable loss of vision patients usually experience, which may or may not have been related to the treatment. That patient got a different kind of stem cell derived from skin cells as part of a carefully designed Japanese study. The Japanese case marks the first time anyone has given induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to a patient to treat any condition. The report about the three women in their 70s and 80s who were blinded in Florida is renewing calls for the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on the hundreds of clinics that are selling unproven stem cell treatments for a wide variety of medical conditions, including arthritis, autism and stroke.

Comments

Technological salvation...

[js290]

Technological salvation is a faith based proposition.

Re:Technological salvation...

[SeaFox]

Good thing we're cutting funding for the sciences so we can find out what happened.

Re: Technological salvation...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I know what happened: they blinded them with science!

Re:Technological salvation...

[zifn4b]

Good thing we're cutting funding for the sciences so we can find out what happened.

That, unfortunately, does not have an impact on the prevalence of pseudo-science.

Re:Technological salvation...

[Bright Apollo]

Salvation is a faith-based proposition. Technology has nothing to do with it.

Pro tip

[Anonymous Coward]

Pro tip, don't look at laser err have injections in the remaining eye.
One at a time it people!

Re:Pro tip

[Anonymous Coward]

Some companies advertise that they can do laser treatment of both eyes in a single procedure. I would do the worst eye first, then wait a couple months before risking the second eye, and if the second eye is still better than the first eye, I would also not do the second one. Eyes are much more difficult to replace than arms and legs.

New and Improved!

[Notabadguy]

Medical flimflammery has been around ever since the first witch doctor howled at the moon. The ingenuity of salesmen for nostrums is matched by the gullibility of those yearning for cures for whatever ails them.

Lee's Anti-bilious pills: excellently adapted to carry off superfluous bile and prevent its morbid excretions -- to restore and amend the appetite -- produce a free perspiration, and thereby prevent colds ... celebrated for removing habitual costiveness -- sickness of the stomach and severe headaches -- and ought to be taken by all persons on a change of climate . . .

Lee's elixir: a sovereign remedy for colds, obstinate coughs, catarrhs, asthma, and approaching consumptions . . .

Lee's grand restorative: an invaluable medicine for the speedy relief and permanent cure of the various complaints that arise from dissipated pleasure ... the diseases peculiar to females at a certain period of life, bad lyings-in, & . . .

Lee's worm-destroying lozenges: which have within seven years past, cured upward of one hundred thousand persons, of both sexes, of every age and of every situation, of various dangerous complaints, arising from worms and from obstructions or foulness in the stomach or bowels.

Lee's genuine essence and extract of mustard: a safe and effectual remedy for acute and chronic rheumatism, gout, palsy, lumbago, numbness, white swellings, chilblains, sprains, bruises, pains in the face and neck, etc.

Lee's infallible ague and fever drops: for the care of agues and intermittent fevers . . .

Lee's sovereign ointment for the itch: an infallible remedy at one application, and may be used with the most perfect safety by pregnant women, or on infants a week old, not containing a particle of mercury or any dangerous ingredient . . .

Lee's corn plaster: an infallible remedy for removing corns, root and branch, without giving pain.

The Indian vegetable specific: for the care of venereal complaints.

And now...

Lee's Stem Cell Therapy: an unparalleled surgical injection that will heal whatever ails you, regenerate your skin, cure your cancer, turn back the ravages of time in your body, and even replenish the shine in your hair.

Re:New and Improved!

[Anonymous Coward]

... matched by the gullibility ...

I was just thinking about this the other day: How could people be surprised that people float, or that it's possible to push a 5 cm needle into muscle without her noticing? I think it comes down to education. When there's no systemic way of learning medical facts (eg. school), one's knowledge is limited to what the community elders believe: The bible is a perfect example; it's preaching nothing more than the words of dozens of uneducated old men.

Of course, people will use mumbo-jumbo to explain the most basic of events; like the phone/computer/camera won't switch on because the memory is full. (Don't laugh, I was told that an hour ago, by an adult.)

Re:New and Improved!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I never knew the Traitor General had a side business going on while commanding the Army of Northern Virginia.

And the Singularity is no cure...

[NotQuiteReal]

Yeah, we're all gonna die.

Some day, you may be able to perform a very altruistic act, and donate your personality to the "singularity" (e.g. "upload yourself").

I say altruistic, since, YOU, of course, will still be dead.

If your virtualized self doesn't recognize the fact that it is not really you, I wouldn't want my avatar to have to deal with you, even virtually.

Sales feature for future "singularity" providers - add a virus checker to weed out such pompous personalities, and cater to a more humble crowd. (don't worry, there is no reason why one wouldn't be able to "upload" themselves to more than one provider. Heh, this means some of your virtual selves will resent your for their placement. Hopefully, "self-delete" will always be an option.

Re:And the Singularity is no cure...

[greythax]

How is the you rotting on the floor any more you than the you thinking, living, loving in a virtual world? Copy that you to another server, and which one is less you? People need to get over this idea that this meat that we walk around in has some unique spot inside that contains our soul. Rather realize that the only soul you have is the one that you have convinced yourself you have.

You have two eyes

[Solandri]

Always do experimental treatments on one eye. And only when you're sure that vision in that eye has stabilized (whether improved, the same, or worse) do you treat the other eye. This is how laser eye surgery (and its predecessor - radial keratotomy which made incisions in the cornea with a knife) was done before it established a statistical track record of being very safe and reliable. Even then, in extreme or risky cases they'll still do one eye at a time.

Treating both eyes at once with an experimental procedure was beyond reckless and negligent. The idiots who decided to do it need to lose their medical licenses and face criminal charges.

Re:You have two eyes

[TWX]

Yep, be careful.

Re:You have two eyes

[phantomfive]

"Do not look through telescope with remaining good eye"

Re:You have two eyes

[Anonymous Coward]

The idiots who decided to do it need to lose their medical licenses and face criminal charges.

What makes you think they had them in the first place? This happened in Florida, land of ignorant and senile octogenarians, massive medicare fraud, pill mills and shady clinics galore and yes medical quackery too. It's incredible the bullshit that some American seniors will swallow hook line and sinker. I can totally believe that some broken down senior citizens with two marbles left rolling around upstairs went down to some "health spa" to get fat cells injected into both eyes by a charlatan as part of a miracle cure for macular degeneration.

Hang onto your hat.

[hey!]

It's going to get crazier.

The summary misses an important part of this story: Congress passed a law mandating the that federal government operate a registry of clinical trials for compassionate reasons. Then unscrupulous companies discovered this was a perfect way to market unproven treatments to potential customers. The ladies in this story paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of being a guinea pig.

And now with the "21st Century Cures Act" the standards for collecting human subject research data have been relaxed...

Re:Hang onto your hat.

[mysidia]

We need a revision to the law, where: (A) Human guinea pigs Can't be charged a fee above nominal admin. charges if the treatment doesn't work, And,
(B) Human test subjects as a group are automatically assigned a 20% interest in every patent, or other intellectual property related to a drug or treatment developed and demonstrated by the required clinical research distributed evenly among test subjects throughout the research, which is assigned after approval, the ownership share is protected from any creditor, and no contract or covenant can be made by a participant waiving, disposing of, pledging, or otherwise regarding adding any rights or restrictions about that person's share/interest, until after the study or their active participation concludes, the treatment receives approval, and the past human test subject prove that they've engaged licensed attorneys for advise on the matter.

Re:Hang onto your hat.

[AmiMoJo]

We need a better system for funding and getting people on to experimental medical trials in general.

I see various stem cell treatments for ME and the temptation to try them is credibly strong. Yes, they are pretty dodgy - mostly based in India or South America, but some people report success with them.

ME makes life pretty miserable. Imagine waking up and feeling like you just ran a marathon and need a good week's sleep. Imagine feeling like crap all day, every day, for the rest of your life no matter what. Imagine not being able to do the stuff you want to do because you are too tired after work. And here is some clinic that claims they can fix it, and it seems to work for other people... But they spent â100k on it, and you don't have â100k, so you are left with the budget options...

The best way to help people who are that desperate is to operate trials in western countries with government subsidy and supervision. We are too cautious at the moment, and too reliant on for-profit groups doing the trials.

Re:Hang onto your hat.

[jebrick]

This is why you cut funding to the FDA so we can get more drugs and treatments to the patients quicker and then check to see if they work.

Re:Hang onto your hat.

[mysidia]

We are too cautious at the moment, and too reliant on for-profit groups doing the trials.

If some trials for a treatment are government-subsidized, Then there should be no exclusive rights to the product being trialed for any 1 company.... Perhaps by the gov't using eminent domain to take necessary patents on lifesaving medication, setting a license fee for active ingredient X that all competitors will have to pay, and for Just compensation to the original patent owner --- a portion of their license fees to the government to be determined on an annual basis will be waived.

We're too cautious.... Yes. It is OK for for-profit groups doing trials, But the Profit part should not
be allowed to come until After they have an approved product.

If you Pay for a treatment for an experimental. unapproved, or under trial product as a patient, then you are effectively funding the company's research, and deserve a Cut of ownership on the results, if the product turns out to be profitable ---- Also, if you submit as a human subject for testing, which could be a dangerous treatment, Then you are a member of a group taking a risk and should have a stake in outcome just like the actual investors in the company take a risk.

Re:Hang onto your hat.

[mysidia]

How does cutting funding help? The FDA will increase their backlog of drugs waiting for work required prior to approval that they don't have the manpower and resources to push through their pipeline as quickly, Since you've pulled back on funding, fewer drugs will be approved.

Defund NPR

[Orgasmatron]

Unproven Stem Cell Treatments Blind 3 Women

In a second report, a patient suffering from the same condition had a halt in the inexorable loss of vision patients usually experience, which may or may not have been related to the treatment.

women who were blinded after getting stem cells derived from fat tissue at a for-profit clinic in Florida

Money shot:

The inaction by the FDA not only puts many patients at serious risk

Imagine that. A government mouthpiece (literally) publishes a story with the sole purpose of making an emotional appeal for: more government.

Re:Defund NPR

[The Evil Atheist]

Yeah. Let the free market solve everything! Once enough people go blind, why, these businesses will surely go down in flames because nobody will be able to find them anymore!

Re:Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

Key words : "supposed to"

Re:Defund NPR

[ShanghaiBill]

In this case, private lawsuits will provide plenty of corrective action. Despite this setback, there is a lot of promise to stem cells, and the heavy hand of government bureaucracy is likely to do far more harm than good.

Re:Defund NPR

[hackwrench]

That wasn't the argument. The matter was more along the lines of a conflict of interest of the reporter than a matter of what government and the free market can and should do.

Re:Defund NPR

[The Evil Atheist]

There's a lot of promise to stem cells, which is why I don't think government should heavily regulate stem cell RESEARCH. But this isn't research. This is people making untested claims and duping people who can not possibly be informed into paying money for shonky treatment. There's no corrective action that can reverse blindness, as I understand it.

Re:Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

> [NPR is a] government mouthpiece... Defund NPR

Somewhere between 9 and 14% of all public radio station's funding comes from Federal money.

Less than 1% of NPR's operating budget comes from Federal money.

Source: http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances

You'd have a better argument that public universities are unduly influenced by federal funding; they get ~16% of their funding from federal money (as opposed to NPR's 1%).

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/12/study-us-higher-education-receives-more-federal-state-governments

DEFUND PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES! Oh wait, universities are something that people mostly universally like, aren't they? Hmm. Guess _that_ can't be our war cry... even though it makes more sense...

Re:Defund NPR

[Sique]

Accountability only exist if there are regulations in place that define it. And it's not the Left who fight regulations.

Re:Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh fuck off.

Why don't you add that "The invisible hand of the free market will something something!" 'cause that's the solution?

Re:Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

In this case, private lawsuits will provide plenty of corrective action

- Is this the man who performed these operations on you?
- I don't know, I'm blind!
- Reasonable doubt, case dismissed.

Re: Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

Lawsuits assume financial compensation is appropriate.

How much do I have to pay you to take your eyesight?

What was that? I didn't hear your bullshit answer.

Re:Defund NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably not. The "private lawsuits" were settled under the usual "confidentiality clauses" so all that "U.S. Stem Cell" corporation lost was some money - likely not a lot - that they paid to the injured patients. It's time to do away with "confidentiality clauses" in legal settlements.

Kristen Comella, the scientific director of U.S. Stem Cell, would not discuss the cases. "There were legal cases associated with eye patients that were settled under confidentiality, so I am not permitted to speak on any details of those cases due to the confidentiality clause," Comella said by phone.

Re:Defund NPR

[Sri Ramkrishna]

Only if there are regulations and laws in place that you can base a lawsuit on. If there aren't any then those lawsuits will be much harder to come by.

Re:Defund NPR

[ShanghaiBill]

Only if there are regulations and laws in place that you can base a lawsuit on.

In a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff does not need to show that the defendant broke any law.

Re:Defund NPR

[david_thornley]

The plaintiff has to file suit on the basis that the defendant did something that the defendant legally should not have, or failed to do something the defendant was legally required to do. In cases of contract violation, for example, the plaintiff tries to show that the defendant broke some aspect of contract law. The plaintiff doesn't have to show that the defendant broke any criminal law, but the law has to be involved somewhere.

"Right to try"

[Michael Woodhams]

Many US states have "right to try" laws, and this is the sort of thing that those laws are designed to allow.
On the supply side you have charlatans, well meaning doctors who have a dud treatment they truly believe in, and well meaning doctors who have a working-but-unproven treatment they truly believe in. On the demand side, you have patients who want to pay for a miracle and have bought into the (often hard-sell and deceptive) sales story of the supply side. These combine to try to push politicians into allowing unproven medical treatments. The medical establishment objects, but are often drowned out.

You can find lots of criticism of "right to try" here.

Re:"Right to try"

[TWX]

Normally though, doctors of medicine who are pledged to do no harm are treating experimentally with work that researchers have conducted studies with and gotten at least some semblance of result, or else medical doctors are working with patients for experimental treatments that won't cause any additional harm anyway.

The eye is not something to trifle with. Unfortunately they did in this case, and it sounds like without any scientific basis.

Re:"Right to try"

[dywolf]

right to try is only for experimental procedures for the benefit of terminally ill patients.
does not apply here.

Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Xenographic]

We already know what happened here. Some people in Florida injected mesenchymal stem cells into the eyes of three people. Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent, but we already know that they do not form eye tissue. There was a different Japanese study that used induced pluripotent stem cells, which actually showed some promise. Those stem cells actually can become any type of tissue and are much more difficult and expensive to obtain.

So, I don't know about you, but I have a lot of questions about how injecting cells that might turn into bone, cartilage, fat or muscle into someone's eyes is supposed to help prevent blindness. And I would expect a lot of good answers and prior studies before having them do that to people.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[mysidia]

And I would expect a lot of good answers and prior studies before having them do that to people.

Yeah.... Injecting ANYTHING into somebody's Eye is dangerous business.
You need more than a hunch to do that.

It's not as the article's author suggested a justification for a FDA 'Crack down' on potential stem cell treatments for things that don't
involve doing something ridiculous --- like injecting the cells directly into a vital organ such as the eyes, brain, heart, spine, kidneys, etc.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[omaha393]

They didn't use mesenchymal, they used indued pluripotent stem cells derived from fat cells.. There's different ways cells can be induced to pluripotency (the Yamanaka method is the favorite) but the one of the biggest trouble with iPSCs is their epigenetic profiles [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3760008/]. Basically just because you activate the genes you need for iPSCs to form doesn't mean their epigenetic profiles are the same as naturually occuring pluripotent cells, so unexpected growth and differentiation can occur. Also, iPSCs have a tendency to become cancerous, so even if you run the same treatment there's still a risk of tumor formation.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[ShanghaiBill]

Injecting ANYTHING into somebody's Eye is dangerous business.

Sure, but these women had macular degeneration and were going blind anyway. MD causes the vision to deteriorate first in the center of the visual field, and then expand outward, so the most important part of sight is lost first, leaving only peripheral vision. So it's not like 3 women with perfect vision suddenly lost their sight.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

You and your "science"! What we need to Make America Great Again is less science, less regulation and more opportunity for entrepreneurs like this Florida company to make profit.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Xenographic]

This would be reasonable in a controlled study, but this appears to have been a rogue clinic doing something that made no sense at all.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Raenex]

Sure, but these women had macular degeneration and were going blind anyway.

They had enough vision to read and drive. There's no guarantee they would have gone completely blind, or at what rate they would have lost their vision. And they paid $5,000 for the privilege of going blind while being irresponsibly injected into both eyes instead of one. All while thinking they were taking part in legitimate research, because the "study" was advertised on a government site.

The whole thing is a horror show of profit-seeking irresponsibility.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Xenographic]

A significant amount of America's 'greatness' is tied up in our scientific & engineering achievements, such as ARPANET or going to the moon.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't you start with one eye, check the success/improvement before moving on to another eye, with pluripotent stem cells instead.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Stuarticus]

Sure, but these women had macular degeneration and were going blind anyway. MD causes the vision to deteriorate first in the center of the visual field, and then expand outward, so the most important part of sight is lost first, leaving only peripheral vision. So it's not like 3 women with perfect vision suddenly lost their sight.

Well when you put it like that it sounds much more reasonable, they should really be grateful for the opportunity to go blind earlier. Now they have an opportunity to pull themselves up by their own walking sticks.

Re: Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

They got ripped off. I could have blinded them for far less than $5000.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump's budget seems to suggest he believes America's greatness is tied more closely to its ability to harass other countries and blow up things.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but the bad publicity from this failure will force the clinic to close. The free market works, even for healthcare.

Re: Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

Paging Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!

Woop woop woop

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

The one lady had 20/30 vision. Macular degeneration (especially age-related) can be a very slow process. These women could well have been robbed of years of meaningful vision. Further, the disease doesn't necessarily proceed equally fast in both eyes. For all those reasons and more going from the vision they had to total blindness is indeed a big deal.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[PingSpike]

Generally yes, but it was buy one get one free day at the clinic.

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole thing is a horror show of profit-seeking irresponsibility.

You say that as if Shanghai would be put off. In fact that is exactly why he supports it and is deflecting criticism.

Where is it that they shoot prisoners and then charge the family for the cost of the bullet?

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[Sri Ramkrishna]

So a Michael Bay production?

Re:Why put MSCs in your eyes to begin with?

[mysidia]

Sure, but these women had macular degeneration and were going blind anyway. MD causes the vision to deteriorate

By this logic, we should just let murderers go free, because the victim was suffering from a disease called Aging that was eventually going to kill them, anyways.

MD has a very gradual progression, and it is by no means certain that the person would still be alive by the time it resulted in near total blindness.

greatest generation.

[Anonymous Coward]

[Dilios is putting a patch over his eye]
King Leonidas: Dilios, I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless.
Dilios: Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.

Kidding?

[Anonymous Coward]

crack down on the hundreds of clinics that are selling unproven stem cell treatments for a wide variety of medical conditions, including arthritis, autism and stroke

So the market which is know for its stringent regulation preventing access to tested drugs from other markets is not regulating surgical procedures which can cause cancer or other irreparable harm?

Right to Try

[Anonymous Coward]

Bit of a problem with that is when the 'trying' is motivated purely by profit factors rather than any science or care for the patient.

Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[Gravis Zero]

Why aren't they testing this on lab animals before trying this on humans? When you skip the safety protocols, you can get a lot of horrific results.

Re:Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's an easy one.
You can't charge four or five digits to a bunny or a rat.

Re:Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[ShanghaiBill]

Why aren't they testing this on lab animals before trying this on humans?

There are no good animal models for age related macular degeneration. Rodents don't get ARMD, and primates don't develop it until they are several decades old. Besides, if this treatment was put off for five years while animal trials were done, these women would be blind anyway, and their retinas would have likely deteriorated too far to recover. So it was now or never.

Re:Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[cryptolemur]

There's not that many animals around willing to pay good money to these for-profit folks.

Re:Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[Stuarticus]

Have you any idea what a chimp costs? These old ladies paid to be involved! I put those numbers into my calculator and it makes a happy face.

Re:Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[Anonymous Coward]

I knew some mental midget was going to go in this direction. There are tons of for-profits out there doing good research and tons of non-profits that are fumbling the ball. The idea that this was a for-profit institution was only interjected to get some know-nothing loser like you to do a knee jerk.

You ate it up and asked for more. How does it feel to be manipulated?

Re: Wait, why are they testing on humans?

[Anonymous Coward]

We don't have any old primates ?

Labelled Beta?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeh, but I'm sure they labelled the procedure 'beta', and put a note of risk of blindness in the EULA.... like self driving cars.

Re: When you look at it that way

[hackwrench]

Well, in that case, that's okay, because I'm not reallyâ me. Sure I resemble the me from just a few moments ago, but the further out you go in time, the less I resemble me's gone by and so it goes for future me's as well. So say goodbye to any me you meet in the future, for you will never meet another me like him ever again.

Wrong paper

[omaha393]

Well looks like I clicked on the wrong NEJM abstract in the link, you were right, they did use adipose derived stem cells. But the entire thing is much, much worse than iPSCs. First, the method they used wasn't the same one in clinical trials. But secondly, the patients thought they were receiving the clinical trial procedure (which they weren't) AND the procedure they thought they were getting had already been revoked from clinical trials by the time they got this shady one. From the paper: "A distinction has been made between clinical studies of stem-cell therapies that are founded on solid preclinical research with strong scientific design and programs that lack preclinical research justification. These programs are often funded by patients at nonacademic centers, and they may not receive FDA oversight if these procedures are performed without the filing of an investigational new drug application with the FDA, which requires extensive safety data. At least one of the patients thought the procedure was performed within the context of a clinical trial (NCT02024269). However, the consent forms signed by all three patients do not mention a clinical trial. The patients paid for a procedure that had never been studied in a clinical trial, lacked sufficient safety data, and was performed in both eyes on the same day."

Re:Wrong paper

[Xenographic]

Those are all good points. The execution was also terrible and I never meant to imply otherwise.

If you don't stop playing with your stem cells...

[hyades1]

...you're going to go blind.

Could be worse...

[Anonymous Coward]

...you could have someone else's cells growing inside you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/health/a-cautionary-tale-of-stem-cell-tourism.html

Re:Could be worse...

[Anonymous Coward]

That is fucked up.

Why both eyes?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Shouldn't they have at least tested on one eye first before messing with the other one?

Re:Why both eyes?

[Anonymous Coward]

A "two for the price of one" sales offer?

Re:Why both eyes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you and I would take that very reasonable approach. Stereo vision isn't all that important, our eyes would be further apart if it was. Reduce the risk of becoming a very helpless human is the real reason for having two eyes (and learning fast after messing with the first eye hurts a lot). But we also would not stuff the wrong type of stem cells into our eyes based on flimsy and small-scale research with the correct type of stem cells.

Re:Why both eyes?

[david_thornley]

I spent a few months with my left cornea messed up so I couldn't see usefully out of that eye. Having two functioning eyes is much better than having one.

Re: Macular Degeneration

[hackwrench]

Somebody should tell them to fly to Australia to find a church in Dandernon(sp?) where I've heard this fellow Sam's mom got cured by God because she went to that church and they prayed for her and there was this singer who was so moved by the tale it was if he had an eye chart in front of him and the first five letters read I C G O D. I mean, what are the odds?

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Homeopathy FTW!

[Anonymous Coward]

At least, it does no harm. And it is cheaper.

Wow malpractice much?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Florida "Doctor" did both eyes at once, the Japanese did one eye, noticed some issues with the stem cultures they had and stopped the test.

BBC podcast on similar eye/stem cell shenanigans

[clickclickdrone]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04wyzk9/

Seems some guy in US without any real qualifications is offering stem cell treatments for eye problems.

Hooray for the free market

[GrumpySteen]

Clearly we should eliminate all those nasty regulations that are holding businesses back so that they can all jump on board and begin reaping the profits from new treatments like this one!

Lawyers

[JBMcB]

Every night on TV I see ads for lawyers offering to sue pharmaceutical companies for making products that do exactly what they are supposed to do. The worst is a lawsuit against a company that makes blood thinners because they potentially cause internal bleeding. Well, yeah, they thin your blood so your heart doesn't stop, internal bleeding is more manageable side effect than your heart stopping. One law firm is starting a class action against a company that makes chemotherapy drugs because they make your hair fall out.

Where are the lawyers suing these scam clinics? Aren't these lawyers ostensibly suing companies for the good of the public? Or do these clinics not make enough money to be worth suing?

Re:Lawyers

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Unfortunately these scam clinics don't have deep enough pockets, if they did there would lawyers line up around the block.

Re:Lawyers

[Agent0013]

Three people does not a large class action make. Perhaps if it continues for a few more years they will have enough victims to make a worth while class action suit.

Re:'for-profit' = unnecessary detail

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Anti-capitalism is good. It is a noble cause. Therefore, any tactic, no matter how decieving, fraudulent and intellectually corrupt is justified.

"The end justifies the means". Isn't it how you filthy right-wing scum think ? Or are you the only ones allowed to use any means necessary to push your parasitical discusting capitalist agenda ?

Let the clinic run

[ilsaloving]

Why should the FDA get involved? The clinics need to make a profit, after all. They may be using Stem cells the way some places claim to use quantum mechanics, but it's all just gimmick, right?

People go to all kinds of quack clinics every day. Homeopathy is a low-hanging-fruit example, but there are tons of ridiculous clinics with ridiculous "treatments" that, at their absolute best, do nothing at all.

As long as profit, emotion and dishonestly are held in higher regard than prudence and rational thought, not only will these sorts of problems continue to occur, but they are *encouraged* to continue.

I would encourage this to help weed out the stupid people, however these people tend to take down others with them (looking at you, anti-vaxxers), and it's not fair to them.

Re:Let the clinic run

[Anonymous Coward]

Try looking in the mirror next time. Every Measles outbreak in the recent years has been among the vaccinated. The non-vaccinated are not causing the problems, it's the vaccine that does not work.

Re:Let the clinic run

[ilsaloving]

You're gonna have to provide some serious citations to back up that claim, especially considering that the news has reported exactly the opposite: That the Measles outbreaks occurred in areas with high % of unvaccinated children.

How about this?

[circularWaffle]

Put a headline out there that states how many people prescription drug addiction has killed. Will the FDA do anything about that? Nope.

Both eyes?

[iamacat]

This seems pretty short sighted when you are trying an experimental treatment, why not treat one eye and see (or don't see) what happens?

Blame Seth MacFarlane for this shit

[Anonymous Coward]

Seth MacFarlane and his simplistic ilk are to blame for shit like this. They're the ones that, for no other reason than religious conservatives are against harvesting fetal stem cells from abortions, walk around talking about stem cell treatment like it's a magic cure-all that will save the world from all disease. This kind of deliberate, politically-motivated disinformation is what creates these gray markets flooded by charlatans.

IMMA LET YOU FINISH

[Thud457]

But back in the day, you used to have to go to some third-world country to get your medical quackery like GOAT TESTICLE GRAFTS

Hell, they used to advertise that stuff on Mexican radio "border BLASTER" radio stations, like where Wolfman Jack got his start.

Restore your vitality with GOAT TESTICLE GRAFTS

Re:IMMA LET YOU FINISH

[Thud457]

also, now that I'm on a roll here, more from FLORIDA - DEADLY ILLEGAL BUTT INJECTIONS

good god people, Fix-a-Flat, WTFx10^6!

It's my body, sorry commrade

[Anonymous Coward]

God damn communists, can you fuck off from telling people what medications can they try?

It's our choice.

Re:'for-profit' = unnecessary detail

[david_thornley]

"For profit" is significant in that it brings up the possibility of fraud (lying for profit) and a possible conflict of interest (the clinic was doing it for the money, and had a financial interest in finding suckers). If the clinic were non-profit, and didn't accept payment, it couldn't be fraud and there would be less (not zero) possibility of a conflict of interest.

So Thomas Dolby was right?

[Anonymous Coward]

These women were blinded by science!!!