20
Jul 2018
Thousands of heart patients could be helped by stem cell breakthrough
The revolutionary stem cell transplant procedure works by harvesting stem cells from the patient’s bone morrow, boosting their numbers in a laboratory and then injecting back into the patient, which is thought to encourage a damaged heart to heal itself, generating new blood vessels and cardiac tissue.
Stem cell therapy, which is not yet available through the NHS and costs approximately £10,000, has until now only been offered through clinical trials and results have so far suggested that it has an 80 per cent success rate.
To date, the charity Heart Cells Foundation have treated over 400 patients in the UK.
The charity is now funding treatment not as part of a trial, but for patients who have attempted all other treatment options.
In the meantime, researchers are saying that stem cells could help thousands more patients as a preventative treatment.
A new trial undertaken by the British Heart Foundation has shown that stem cell therapy given soon after a heart attack could prevent heart failure.
Cardiologist Professor David Newby, of the British Heart Foundation, who is leading the trial, said “These cells are important in new vessel growth and believed to be ideal to help the heart regenerate and recover.
“I describe our approach as that of a sniper, with previous approaches being more of a blunderbuss.”
He went on to say that while the results of the trial are ‘encouraging’, there is currently no data to prove that stem cells from the blood are more effective than those from bone marrow.
He added “But the field of stem cell therapy is a small community and we need all the help we can get.”
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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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