Who’s afraid of stem cell therapy?

The miracle cure, if we are to believe the accounts of friends and celebrities, is stem cell therapy. Some individuals talk about how, after SCT,  they’ve recovered from or prevented the recurrence of that awful Big C, and being able to bounce back to a healthy, and happy existence.  A good friend of ours proudly told us, “Look, I’m no longer using a walking stick.”  Now, a lot of people —  women, and of course, men —  shell out quite a lot of money to look young, or regain their lost good looks due to age and unwholesome lifestyles. In short, the belief is that stem cell therapy is a miracle cure, as the fountain of youth.      

Because of the  promise and monetary rewards  of  stem cell treatments, clinics offering the supposed cure have mushroomed everywhere. And supposed medical doctors from foreign lands are reported to perform the treatment in five-star hotels.

But we are being advised to be wary of SCT — if it is not properly performed, and only by medical doctors at hospital facilities accredited to do SCT.  The other day presidents of 17 medical societies and  sub-specialty societies published a one-page ad announcing its position on SCT treatments, intending to warn the public of the danger of unregulated use of the therapy.

The doctors said stem cell therapy has been proven beneficial in very few medical conditions, i.e., cancers of the blood and bone marrow, and some primary immune deficiences treated by autologous or allogenic stem cell transplants. The effectiveness and safety of SCT have yet to be proven in the following conditions (“unproven indications”) such as heart, lung, neurologic, skin, rheumatologic, kidney and gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, autism, cancer, aging and aesthetics, HIV AIDS and other conditions.

In a whole-page ad yesterday, Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona said that the Department of Health had issued last  March 18 guidelines to ensure a minimum quality of service rendered by  hospitals and other health facilities “capable of utilizing human stem cell preparations and cell-based therapies, and guarantee that human stem cell preparations and cell-based therapies in the Philippines are safe and effective for their intended use.”

Administrative Order No. 2013-0012, said Ona, “prohibits and restricts the creation, importation, promotion, marketing and use of stem cell therapies from embryonic, aborted fetal, and genetically altered, animal and plant stem cells, as they have been proven to cause some fatal complications or tumor formations.

Stem cell preparations that are permitted for patients’ use are autologous adult human stem cells, allogenec human stem cells, human umbilical cord stem cells and human organ specific cells,” said Dr. Ona. Only DOH accredited health facilities are allowed to use these permitted stem cell preparations.

Dr. Ona’s talk said stem cell therapies  fall under the term “innovative therapy” and are allowed by the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki in October 2008, which notes: “In the treatment of a patient, where proven interventions do not exist or have been ineffective, the physician, after seeking expert advice, with informed consent from the patient or a legally authorized representative, may use an unproven intervention if in the physician’s judgment it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering.”

The cost of STM treatment ranges from P4,000 to half a million pesos,  depending on the hospital facility where it is performed. Patients being treated under clinical trial basis, should not be charged, Dr.  Marita Reyes, former dean  of the UP College of Medicine, and former Health Secretary Quasi Romualdez, said.

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Members of the Bulong Pulungan media forum had Dr. Samuel Bernal talk about stem cell therapy, the rage in health wellness today. Dr. Bernal is one of the most respected figures in the fields of medical oncology and regenerative medicine. He is the consultant and adviser of the Institute of Personalized Molecular Medicine (IPMM) at The Medical City which opened in July 2012. IPMM is a specialized unit that offers a comprehensive range of clinical and laboratory services in molecular and cellular therapeutics, including  molecular profiling and stem cell therapies for both Filipino and international patients.

As Dr. Bernal explained it at the media forum, the application of SCT is on a case-to-case basis. This is done first through molecular profiling which , he said, is based on the belief that since no two individuals are the same and no two cancers are alike, cancer treatment plans differ. Based on information gathered from a patient’s tumor, doctors are able to identify the appropriate therapies that target the biomarkers within an individual patient’s cancer cells, Dr.Bernal said.

A sure-fire model for successful stem cell therapy treatment is former child actress Anna-Lissa “Liezl” Sumilang Martinez, who had undergone mastectomy and an intense chemotherapy regimen and 33 days of radiation therapy by  a well-qualified oncologist.  She had just recovered and regained her crown of hair, when tests on the cause of her coughing showed she had fluids in her lungs. When the fluids were drained from her lungs, the diagnosis confirmed that Liezl’s cancer had recurred and metastasized to her left lung; the cancer was stage 4.

Dr. Bernal did Liezl’s molecular profiling. After her fifth cycle of chemotherapy and sixth stem cell injection, the actress went into full remission.

Now Leizl is a great publicist for  SCT, Dr. Bernal and TMC. She is happy,  she has so much energy, traveling every month both for work and for leisure. Friends notice that she looks a lot younger now.

Dr. Bernal was very articulate, and his credentials impressive. I can mention only a few of what he’s done. In December last year, he was given the Presidential Award for Outstanding Filipino Overseas by President Benigno Aquino III, in recognition of his achievement in multiple areas of medicine, science, law and business, including his pioneering work on stem cells in the Philippines.

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Health is in your hands! No less than former Health Secretary Jaime Galvez Tan will conduct a workshop on Shiatsu on August 17, this coming Saturday, at Flor’s Garden in Antipolo.  Dr. Tan just returned from a three-month study of this Japanese traditional massage.

Attendees at the workshop will learn the basics of Shiatzu and apply the skills to family members. Businessmen and their clients can make use of this art to relax.

Participants will eat an organic healthy lunch from freshly picked vegetables prepared by banker-turned “Chef Gil Castro.” They  are asked to bring eyebrow pencils and banig or sleeping bag for the skills training.

On August 29, 30 and 31, Flor’s Garden will  offer a natural farming and gardening seminar to be conducted by Andy Lim, the 2009 Secretary of Agriculture awardee in organic farming. Learn to make your own fertilizers and pesticides from your kitchen wastes.

To attend the above workshops, call Fely Gaco Sadio at 6356092 or 09195527121.

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