Issue of fertility during and after cancer treatments a growing concern for women

Five years ago, Katy Thies was pregnant. She was tired. She bruised easily.

These days, she's pregnant again -- this time with twins. But the bruising and exhaustion are gone, thanks to a stem cell transplant for aplastic anemia, discovered while she was in labor with her 4-year-old son, Logan.

Ms. Thies, 26, of Natrona Heights in Harrison, is the first patient her doctors have heard of to have a child after a stem cell transplant for aplastic anemia, a disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells.

The disease is not a cancer, but the treatment for it can be similar.

But the issue of fertility during and after treatments for cancer is becoming more common, as women delay having children until later in life and cancer treatment becomes more effective, lengthening lives after treatment.

"It's a big topic for young women, that's for sure," said Jane Raymond, interim division director for medical oncology at Allegheny Health Network. "For patients in their 20s who haven't completed their families yet, it's a huge issue."

In October 2008, Ms. Thies was in labor with her son, undergoing a routine blood test before she could receive an epidural. And then another blood test, after doctors assumed that the platelet count in her first test was in error.

Eventually, doctors realized that the platelet count was correct -- and Ms. Thies was in need of blood.

Her labor was stopped and she received two platelet transfusions before it was restarted. She gave birth to a healthy boy and started a monthslong odyssey to figure out what was wrong with her blood.

Eventually, once her red and white blood cell counts began to drop as well, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia.

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Issue of fertility during and after cancer treatments a growing concern for women

Rare stem cell therapy aids area man

EXETER One crisp autumn day nearly nine years ago, Bryan Dan Bomboy was helping a 90-year-old woman by cleaning her rain gutters when he slipped on a piece of moss on her roof and fell, landing on his head.

Bomboy, of Exeter, was flown to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, where he was put on life support, flat lined several times and, after coming out of a coma, was told he would never again move anything except for his eyes.

Some intense physical therapy enabled him to regain some movement in his left arm. But that was the most progress Bomboy, now 50, made until last October, when he flew to California and received stem cell injections.

Im moving my right arm now for the first time in seven years. I can rub my eye or scratch an itch, I can swat away a fly. You cant imagine eight and a half years of not being able to do those things, Bomboy said.

Bomboy received his first round of injections at the California Stem Cell Treatment Center on Oct. 17, 2012. Stem cells were taken from his back in the love handles area and injected into his spine at his neck and lower back.

Bomboy was injected with his own stem cells, becoming the first quadriplegic to receive this treatment. His doctors were skeptical about the potential for success but are amazed by his progress, he said.

In addition to the doctors at the treatment center, Bomboy expressed gratitude to Tom Swartwood and Georgia Cwynski, his occupational therapists; Daria Palka, his nurse; and his family and friends for their prayers and support.

Swartwood, Bomboys occupational therapist for the last three years, was amazed at his progress. Its been nothing short of remarkable, he said. This is really plowing new ground.

One of the most immediate benefits of the therapy that Swartwood noticed was Bomboys improved ability to retain body heat. This guy used to be bundled up all the time. That changed immediately. Today, hes wearing a t-shirt and has a fan blowing on him.

Bomboy still doesnt have any movement in his fingers or below his chest, but he hopes another trip to California will change that.

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Rare stem cell therapy aids area man

Health Beat: Stem cells and stroke

MIAMI -

Each year, 700,000 people suffer a stroke in the United States. Until now, the only recovery for paralysis brought on by the stroke was lengthy rehabilitation.

Now, a new stem cell therapy is helping stroke patients move again.

James Anderson is a triathlete and physical education teacher who was visiting Florida from Maine when suddenly, "I started to feel a little dizzy a little tingling in my right hand and ah I ended up having a stroke," he said.

Anderson did not respond to clot-busting medication or blockage treatments. So, he became paralyzed on the left side of his body.

Dr. Dileep R. Yavatal, a neurologist, treated him as part of a clinical trial in which some of the patients were treated with their own stem cells.

While Anderson doesnt know if he was injected with his own stem cells, two months after treatment, Anderson said, "I have had more movement and strength in my legs."

For the clinical trial, stem cells must be injected into the brain no later than two weeks after the stroke occurs.

Anderson is now able to move around with a walker during rehab and hopes to be able to compete in a triathlon again.

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Health Beat: Stem cells and stroke

Harmonizing a broken heart: Stem cells keep cardiac beat in synchrony

Sep. 1, 2013 Stem cell therapy used to regenerate injured tissue in the heart restores synchronous pumping, shows research published today [1 September] in The Journal of Physiology. The study proposes a novel strategy of 'biological resynchronisation' in which stem cells repair heart muscle damage to reestablish correct cardiac motion.

Heart attacks limit local oxygen, which can kill areas of cardiac tissue -- called 'infarcted' areas -- and also leave scarring. This damage leads to a lack of synchrony in the heart beat motion.

Current therapies use pacing devices, but these require healthy tissue for optimal outcome, meaning a third of patients do not respond well to this treatment. However, this new approach discovered by a team at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA overcomes this limitation as stem cells actually form functional cardiac tissue and reconstruct heart muscle.

Professor Andre Terzic, who led the study, explains the importance of this potential new therapy: "Heart chambers must beat in synchrony to ensure proper pumping performance. Damage to the heart can generate inconsistent wall motion, leading to life-threatening organ failure.

"The heart is vulnerable to injury due to a limited capacity for self-repair. Current therapies are unable to repair damaged cardiac tissue. This proof-of-principle study provides evidence that a stem cell-based regenerative intervention may prove effective in synchronizing failing hearts, extending the reach of currently available therapies."

Doctor Satsuki Yamada, first author of the study, further explains how the research was carried out:

"Stem cells, with a capacity of generating new heart muscle, were engineered from ordinary tissue. These engineered stem cells were injected into damaged hearts of mice. The impact on cardiac resynchronization was documented using high-resolution imaging."

The observed benefit, in the absence of adverse effects, will need to be validated in additional pre-clinical studies prior to clinical translation.

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Harmonizing a broken heart: Stem cells keep cardiac beat in synchrony

Parkinson’s Disease Stem Cell Treatment | PlacidWay.Com – Video

Parkinson #39;s Disease Stem Cell Treatment | PlacidWay.Com
PlacidWay offers State of the Art stem cells procedure to treat Parkinson #39;s Disease. If you #39;re looking for alternative yet viable options in the treatment of...

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Parkinson's Disease Stem Cell Treatment | PlacidWay.Com - Video

Precision StemCell Reports Encouraging Early Results of Direct Injection of Umbilical Cord Matrix Stem Cells for …

BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Precision StemCell (www.precisionstemcell.com), an outpatient treatment facility in Colombia, has successfully performed a breakthrough stem cell procedure that may soon improve the lives of everyone with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The new procedure consists of an advanced, image-guided injection of umbilical cord matrix stem cells into the patient's nerve roots at the point where they exit the spinal cord.

"At our center in Colombia, we have been able to test far more advanced procedures than in the US," explained Dr. Jason Williams, a board-certified radiologist and founder of Precision StemCell. "Specifically, we have obtained stem cells from the umbilical cord matrix of donors; these cells share many of the properties of embryonic stem cells, while not raising any ethical questions. After culturing, we have tens of millions of cells to work with, which are then carefully injected into the patient's nerve roots at the base of the spine. We use image guidance to precisely locate the injected stem cells."

Williams continued: "Young, healthy stem cells have enormous restorative potential that we're only beginning to realize. We know, for example, that umbilical cord matrix stem cells produce immune system-boosting substances and growth factors that slow down ALS. The next steps will involve refining the process even further to build on our current positive results. Stem cells almost certainly hold the key to reversing this tragic condition."

American citizen Steve Ladner traveled to Precision's clinic in Colombia to undergo this new treatment. Improvements were notable only a few weeks after the procedure. "I have more strength and more muscle control than I had before the stem cell injection," remarked Ladner. "My voice is stronger and my energy level is much higher; I even rode horses and bikes, things I couldn't have imagined doing before visiting Precision StemCell. This wasn't the first stem cell therapy I had tried, but it's been by far the most effective at easing my symptoms."

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a nearly always fatal disease affecting the motor neurons; symptoms include weakness, muscle loss, twitches and spasms, and eventually difficulty swallowing and breathing. The exact cause of the disease is still unknown, though genetic abnormalities do account for some instances. Treatment is aimed at slowing the progress of the disease and making the patient more comfortable. Precision StemCell is confident that its stem cell therapies represent a new frontier in ALS research and may one day even lead to a cure.

"We have learned that the stem cells of people with ALS are not as viable as those from a healthy person, meaning they do not grow well, if at all. Donor cells have the potential to create much better outcomes, but unfortunately the culturing and altering of stem cells is not allowed in the US, which is why Dr. Williams opened the clinic in Colombia," explained Precision StemCell's Dr. Leonardo Gonzalez. "In addition to this latest treatment option, we're continually exploring other techniques, including new applications for gene therapy. Dr. Williams and I believe we are on the verge of making a great leap forward in the treatment of ALS and similar neurodegenerative diseases."

Beyond ALS, Precision StemCell has expertise treating a whole host of neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.

To learn more about the pioneering research of Precision StemCell, please contact info@precisionstemcell.com. Prospective patients can see if they qualify for treatment by completing an online form.

About Precision StemCell

Precision is an image guided surgical center, which uses advanced image guidance to administer stem cells for the treatment of various diseases and injuries. Precision is located in Bogota, Colombia. Drs. Jason Williams and Leonardo Gonzalez are the lead physicians.

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Stem cell work could help to stop arthritis in its tracks

Cambridge News Follow us on

Sunday 1 Sep 2013 3:00 PM

Written byADAM LUKE

A Cambridgeshire clinic has received approval to use adult stem cells to help repair and regenerate damaged tissues and joints.

The Villar Bajwa Practice at the Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital in New Road, Impington, is the first private hospital in the UK to offer the treatment for the hip tackling the early stages of arthritis.

It is also one of only a handful of sites to do the same for the knee, in which stem cells are used to create more cartilage, helping to preserve the natural hip and knee joints and delay or prevent the need for bigger operations such as joint replacements.

The operation costs about 3,800 on the NHS and slightly more privately.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Richard Villar, runs the Impington practice with Ali Bajwa.

He said: One of the Holy Grails of my speciality is to encourage gristle articular cartilage to heal.

Gristle is that shiny, white layer on the end of a bone that most will have seen on a chicken drumstick. In humans, it coats the ball of the hip, and the hip socket but it features in many other joints, too knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists, ankles, toes and even fingers.

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Stem cell work could help to stop arthritis in its tracks

ProfNet Experts Available on Artwork Lighting, Stem Cell Transplants, Pediatric Cancer, More

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Stem cell lab opens

Aug 30, 2013 From wire report

TALLINN - A lab suitable for production and multiplying of stem cells, unique in the Baltic States was opened in the Tehnopolis center in Tallinn on Aug. 16, reports Postimees Online. The new lab includes a so-called clean room corresponding to GMP standards, which guarantees an aseptic environment with a special monitoring and influencing system.

Creators of the lab want to develop it, together with the Cell Treatment Cluster, into a production venue necessary for the development of Estonian and European medicine that is capable of producing cell treatment products corresponding to high quality requirements.

Estonian scientists are expected to post scientific achievements and breakthroughs to the world. The prerequisite for achieving an applied breakthrough is a research-technical base and a lab with clean area that corresponds to the conditions for medicine production, said Biolaborite council member, non-profit organization Cell Treatment founder, cell biologist PhD Toomas Neuman.

Cell treatment is a future field of medicine that enables treatment of a person with stem cells taken from his own body. As a doctor and a surgeon I hope that the new lab provides an opportunity of creating and developing innovative treatment methods for global medicine, said Dr. Andrus Loog from Restorative Surgery Clinic.

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Stem cell lab opens

Rejoinder to the stem cell ‘tempest’

Medical Files By Rafael Castillo M.D. Philippine Daily Inquirer

First of two parts

Last Wednesday, the leaders of close to 30 medical organizations, composed of specialists from various fields, gathered at the office of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) to reassert their recommendations to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (PhilFDA) to regulate stem cell treatment (SCT) in the country.

As we said in a previous column, many local practitioners are jumping the gun and, unfortunately, sprinting in the wrong direction with their unscrupulous administration of stem cells left and right for various medical conditions. Their medical practice has not been established as safe and effective for this experimental treatment.

Some medical colleagues were quoted as saying that these medical organizations that are sounding the alarm dont realize that they are killing this promising treatment of the future. I dont think so. Theyre in fact protecting this potential form of treatment from practices that would compromise the safety of patients on the long term, and give it a bad name.

More local experience

In previous columns, weve encouraged more local experience on stem cell treatment under a research protocolwhich is also one of the strong recommendations of the PCP and other medical organizationsso we could gain expertise on it and contribute to the world literature. Unfortunately to this date, there is only one published case report (a single case) in a peer-reviewed international journal.

It is estimated that for the last five years, at least 3,000 Filipinos were given stem cell treatment locally in the big centers and small stem cell clinics which have sprouted like mushroom in Metro Manila and other key cities in the country. Its difficult to explain why there is no published reportother than the lone case reportof what has happened to all these patients given this experimental treatment.

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Rejoinder to the stem cell ‘tempest’