Guest guest Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Hi I was in July in a conference organized by the Trust for SMA in Great Britain. I listened to a speech by Minger who is a stem-cell researcher from the States. His message was that stem cell transplants are not likely to work for anyone with SMA in the near future. Stem cells are a hot topic in the scientific community at the moment. There are some stem cell treatments that have been shown to be effective in the brains and in the heart. However, in SMA, the problem is in three places: 1) the anterior horn cells that are nerve cells located in the spinal cord and 2) in the connections that lead from the spinal cord to the muscles everywhere in your body (toes, feet, legs, arms, trunk, etc.) 3) finally, because the connections are missing, the muscles also waste away For stem cell transplant to work, one would have to somehow restore the anterior horn cells but also to restore the connections everywhere in your body. That is very challenging. What the scientist have done so far is to inject some stem cells in the brains or in the heart. That is relatively easy because the brains or the hear is one piece of tissue located in one part of the body. Injecting them in the spinal cord is much more difficult because the anterior horn cells are well protected by the spine. And even after that, there would remain the problem of recreating all the lost connections. That is next to impossible to achieve through a stem cell transplant because the connections run all over your body. That is my understanding of the issue. kind regards -Taya from Finland Stem Cell Transplant Hi, just wondering if anyone has heard about Stem Cell Transplant ? Is there any study on related topic on Stem Cell treatment for SMA ? Rgds, ML --------------------------------- Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Mobile. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 They have successfully grown axons (the connections between the nerve cells and muscle fibers) in mice at this point!!!!! That still needs to be improved upon, because growing an axon 3 or 4 inches vs the length of a human body is quite different. What concerns me is that even once they get those axons to grow, then they will have to somehow create new muscle cells as well. We are born with a finite number of muscle cells and we don't create any more. When those are lost, they are gone forever. We can bulk up the muscle that remains, but not grow new muscle. All of these advances are wonderful for newly diagnosed babies. They will completely halt the progression. For those who have already experienced a lot of progression it's really not going to do much until they can grow the axons and muscle cells. Love and Hugs Jeni Stem Cell Transplant Hi, just wondering if anyone has heard about Stem Cell Transplant ? Is there any study on related topic on Stem Cell treatment for SMA ? Rgds, ML ------------ --------- --------- --- Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Mobile. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 That's my understanding of it as well. In fact, even if they found some way to magically correct the genetics underlying my SMA, I believe I will always be disabled to some extent. My body has just been through the wringer way too many times to ever be " normal. " Jenn On Nov 18, 2007, at 6:33 AM, Taija Heinonen KOTI wrote: > Injecting them in the spinal cord is much more difficult because > the anterior horn cells are well protected by the spine. And even > after that, there would remain the problem of recreating all the > lost connections. That is next to impossible to achieve through a > stem cell transplant because the connections run all over your body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Dear Taija, Thanks for your info. Rgds, ML Taija Heinonen KOTI <taija.heinonen@...> wrote: Hi I was in July in a conference organized by the Trust for SMA in Great Britain. I listened to a speech by Minger who is a stem-cell researcher from the States. His message was that stem cell transplants are not likely to work for anyone with SMA in the near future. Stem cells are a hot topic in the scientific community at the moment. There are some stem cell treatments that have been shown to be effective in the brains and in the heart. However, in SMA, the problem is in three places: 1) the anterior horn cells that are nerve cells located in the spinal cord and 2) in the connections that lead from the spinal cord to the muscles everywhere in your body (toes, feet, legs, arms, trunk, etc.) 3) finally, because the connections are missing, the muscles also waste away For stem cell transplant to work, one would have to somehow restore the anterior horn cells but also to restore the connections everywhere in your body. That is very challenging. What the scientist have done so far is to inject some stem cells in the brains or in the heart. That is relatively easy because the brains or the hear is one piece of tissue located in one part of the body. Injecting them in the spinal cord is much more difficult because the anterior horn cells are well protected by the spine. And even after that, there would remain the problem of recreating all the lost connections. That is next to impossible to achieve through a stem cell transplant because the connections run all over your body. That is my understanding of the issue. kind regards -Taya from Finland Stem Cell Transplant Hi, just wondering if anyone has heard about Stem Cell Transplant ? Is there any study on related topic on Stem Cell treatment for SMA ? Rgds, ML --------------------------------- Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Mobile. Try it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 Stem cell transplants also kill patients. It is a difficult judgement whether a transplant will be effective, but for most patients they are too old to transplant or not ill enough to justify it. Terry Hamblin MD In a message dated 10/04/2011 16:17:31 GMT Daylight Time, cdmay50@... writes: This is the second time this week I have heard that a stem cell transplant will 'cure' cll. If that is the case why don't they do more of them. Is it just too hard to find donors? Why all the treatment regimens instead of stem cell transplants. Could someone explain this to me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 This is the second time this week I have heard that a stem cell transplant will 'cure' cll. If that is the case why don't they do more of them. Is it just too hard to find donors? Why all the treatment regimens instead of stem cell transplants. Could someone explain this to me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 Because survival of the transplant itself may be only 50% - more at come centers for people in good overall health and less for others. If you follow the experience of some transplanters, they are dealing with serious graft vs host issues even years after transplant. For others, it just doesn't take. For a lucky minority, it can indeed mean long-term quiescence or cure, but hardly something you'd bet on if you had any other option. I am sure you will get a more medically sound answer from others. Heléne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 10, 2011 Report Share Posted April 10, 2011 Age, donor match and co-morbidities are major factors in the success of stem cell transplants. Since the median age of CLL diagnosis is 72 years old, worldwide, it is simply not an option for most patients. Generally allogeneic stem cell transplantation are only done on high risk patients (17p deleted and 11q deleted) who are refractory to treatments and generally in a 50 to 60 age range. Still the success rate is poor and risk of mortality high. The recent major allogeneic stem cell transplantation clinical trial, CLL3X from German, with a median follow up of 46 months found, achieved 4-year nonrelapse mortality (NRM) of 23%, event-free survival (EFS) 42%, and overall survival (OS) 65%. This is hardly a cure... There was also a recent study in France that looked at the possibility of using autologous stem cell transplantation as a first-line treatment strategy for CLL. You can read more about it here http://cllcanada.ca/2010/index.htm, about half way down the page. Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) are certainly not a cure and CLL returns in time, similar to treatment with chemo. It may however be a possible option for some patients in the future as an alternative to things like FCR, B+R etc. To learn more about the CLL3X trial: http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/116/14/2438.full.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/3wnf8yg ~chris CLL CANADA http://cllcanada.ca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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