Divided views on stem-cell pioneers

Published on Wednesday 21 January 2009 21:30

PLANS to start testing a stem-cell treatment for strokes were welcomed this week, as patients become more anxious for therapies to emerge from this often controversial area of science.

Some campaigners believe the advance is not such good news, and will lead to a risky treatment being tested on Scottish patients. Scientists, on the other hand, have defended the trial, which will involve injecting cells made from a human foetus into patients' brains.

The firm that developed the cells, Reneuron, applied to begin trials in the United States two years ago, but the treatment has not yet been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. This has raised concern among some ethical campaigners, who question whether watchdogs in the UK are right in letting the trial proceed. One told me: "I think one should be extremely cautious if anyone in Glasgow is approached to take part in this trial. They should run a mile."

But scientists believe such trials are long overdue. Most of the research conducted so far using stem cells has remained at a very basic stage, frustrating patients who want treatments to be made available faster rather than remain in the lab.

The UK Stem Cell Network, among others, has welcomed the progress being made. An insider said "due process" was being followed in the UK in terms of the trial being approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

He said there were only a "handful" of stage one clinical trials involving stem cells currently under way.

"There are so few of these trials going on at the moment that new ones, properly approved, are to be welcomed," he said.

But he admitted no phase-one clinical trial involving stem cells or any other agent could be guaranteed to be 100 per cent safe. "Patients who volunteer to participate are told about the risks and they participate voluntarily," he said. "There's nothing different here simply because it is stem cells."