Stem Cell Therapy For Heart Disease News
Related News: Heart / Cardio NewsForbes is covering reports by participants at major conference in New York on stem-cell therapy who agree that such a cure for heart disease is proving elusive.
Though some studies are showing a modest benefit from these cell-transplant therapies for heart disease, significant improvements in heart function have yet to be seen.
"Nothing that I've seen at this meeting, with regard to cell therapy, show that it prolongs the life of heart-failure patients," said Dr. Eric Rose, chairman of the department of surgery and associate dean of translational research at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City.
Despite the lack of major breakthroughs, Rose did stress that the field is just developing and is barely five years old.
Furthermore, he went on to say that many heart-failure patients in clinical trials have shown benefits from stem-cell treatments and that this demonstrates these strategies still have great promise.
"For some patients, cell therapy may improve their quality of life," he said. "Those are the kinds of early signals that you look for in a field that's this young."
Researchers from facilities all over the world are presenting their findings at the conference symposium. Some attendees have been using stem cells sourced from the patient's bone marrow. Others are focusing their research on cells cultured from cell lines in a laboratory. Others still have been using cells found in the peripheral blood supply, a much less invasive method.
Read more at Forbes - Stem Cells Offer Hope Against Heart Failure
Posted on February 3, 2006 07:12 PM