Cancer danger from stem cell treatment
An Australian man may be first to get cancer from stem cell treatment in overseas clinic. This has prompted calls for better education.
Today’s The Age newspaper reports on fears that a Victorian man with leukemia may be the first Australian to get cancer as a result of stem cell treatment from a private clinic overseas.
This has prompted calls for better public education about stem cell therapy and the so called “Stem Cell Tourism” operators, that are largely unregulated and few have any published evidenced about the efficacy of their treatments. Essentially, if you decide to cough up the large sums of money to cover the treatment you are taking part in an experiment. There is little, if any, evidence that the treatment they provide works.
GNTIS has posted a blog on this in the past and provided links to information to help people assess these clinics and know what questions to ask to make them more informed of what they are getting themselves into. The Australian Stem Cell Centre is playing a key role in this education process and has a large amount of information on its web site.
The Age reports that patient advocacy groups are meeting stem cell experts in Canberra today to discuss a coordinated approach to public education on overseas experimental treatments.
Jason Major