CIRM – California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

August 19, 2013

(This article was just posted on the CIRM (California Stem Cell Agency’s website) and is an important notice to all thinking about traveling to a foreign nation to undergo stem cell treatment. It should be read in its entirety before throwing out your money!)

As stakeholders in cellular therapy, the undersigned professional organizations believe it is necessary to share the following important message with patients and families contemplating cell therapy or experimental stem cell procedures. In this document, best practices are outlined to assist patients and family members in their healthcare decisions. Controlled innovation in the context of patient safety is paramount as potential therapeutic products or procedures are researched, tested, advanced and proven. Our organizations have received questions and concerns from patients and this document presents an opportunity to address them.

Introduction

Advancement of clinical therapies is best done in the setting of rigorous and formal clinical trials and in a structured regulatory framework. This helps assure that safety considerations, professional peer review, and the management of patient rights and obligations are considered and addressed. Some procedures would be considered standard of care, because scientific studies have shown that they are safe and effective. Not all procedures offered to patients in all regions of the world are tested in this manner and not all geographical regions have regulations for cellular therapies or patient protection. Additionally, it is possible that some practitioners may offer stem cell procedures without following the existing regulations. Patients may be seeking treatment for incurable, potentially untreatable diseases and may be susceptible to false promises or may not have access to all of the information needed to make this important decision. As patients and families contemplate voluntarily accepting new procedures, some of which may be unproven or experimental, they should consider the following key points.

To read the rest of this notice, please follow this link ^[1].