![]() A Houston orthopedic surgeon took stem cells from Perry's fatty tissue, had them treated and expanded in a for-profit Sugar Land laboratory and then reinfused them in Perry during back surgery. Rick Perry from getting the therapy for his ailing back in 2011. Most scientists deploying the cells in clinical trials say they are not yet ready for mainstream use. They envision it as the linchpin of a new field, regenerative medicine.īut progress harnessing stem cells' potential has been slow. Their ability to grow into different kinds of tissue and the possibility they can repair organ function has excited researchers in the Texas Medical Center and around the nation for 20 years now. No one doubts the potential of stem cells, long used to treat blood cancers and more recently found to possess even greater versatility. "Stem cells have been called everything from cure-alls to miracle treatments," the FDA said in a consumer health alert with the announcement. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb acknowledged the field's promise but warned that the agency must "meet its obligation to ensure the safety and efficacy of medical products patients rely upon." The law could also put some Texas clinics on a collision course with the federal government, which this month announced plans to crack down on some stem cell practices. The latter include cases of patients going blind after receiving injections in the eye. It certainly will impose demands on patients to choose wisely among the maze of clinics, given that some patients report dramatic improvement, some report no benefit and a few report disastrous results. state to sanction experimental stem cell therapy and the latest to provoke scientists, some of whom express fear such backing will lend legitimacy to adventurous treatments, prey upon the desperation of patients and give rise to hucksters. The new law, which went into effect in September, makes Texas the first U.S. A companion piece to the 2015 right-to-try law that seeks to make pharmaceutical drugs still in clinical trials accessible to cancer patients, the new law would allow patients with chronic conditions to give stem cell therapy a shot. The numbers only figure to increase as a result of a 2017 Texas law that facilitates clinics purporting to use such cells as treatment for people with chronic illness - without the regulatory testing and approval normally required under federal law. A recent report found the state is one of the nation's stem cell hotbeds, promoting the treatment as a possible cure for everything from multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's to diabetes and hypertension. In April, Barden got an injection of stem cells at a Pearland clinic, one of more than 100 for-profit businesses in Texas providing the increasingly popular but unproven and expensive therapy. "I could always have surgery later if it didn't work." "I noticed that lots of athletes had done stem cell treatment and figured if it's good enough for them, it's probably good enough for me," said Barden, who skied and played tennis in her younger years.
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