St. Luke's and UST sign accord with Korean hospital on stem cell treatment

MANILA, Philippines - Efforts to find a cure or delay the progression of a neuro-degenerative disease have been given a boost after St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) and University of Sto. Tomas Hospital (USTH) inked yesterday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hanyang University of South Korea to explore stem cell treatment.

Dr. Joven Cuanang, head of SLMC’s Neurology Department, said the “Stem Cell Therapy Program” was made possible through Candaba, Pampanga Mayor Jerry Pelayo whose wife Lani, 48, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or “Lou Gehrig Disease.”

ALS is a form of motor neuron disease that weakens the nerve cells of one’s body and has no known cure yet.  Cuanang claimed the Pelayo family’s search for treatment had led them to Dr. Seung Kim, chair of Hanyang University’s Neurology Department, who has been researching on the use of erythropoetin in slowing down the progression of ALS.

The Pelayo matriarch is undergoing stem cell treatment at Hanyang University and is also being cared for at SLMC.

“I’d like to thank the Pelayo family for initiating this confluence of events. Having taken care of Lani Pelayo, we have been introduced to the world with regards to what stem cells can do with patients with a ALS specifically,” Cuanang said.

According to Kim, the three leading neuro-degenerative disorders are Alzeimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS, which is the most rare compared to the two.

In SLMC, there are around 55 ALS patients while statistics for USTH was not immediately available.

Cuanang said that under the MOU, they would study the “usefulness” of stem cell therapy in treating ALS for three years.

Eventually, the research might be expanded beyond this period to cover other neuro-degenerative illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzeimer’s.

“This stem cell therapy and the research that we are going to pursue will enlighten us with regards to its usefulness in hopefully delaying the disability of patients and much more that it will come out with some cure,” he said.

Dr. Imelda David, chair of USTH’s department of neurology and psychiatry, maintained the degenerative diseases are progressive. “There is some sort of death that is going on in different cells of the body and these degenerative diseases are in a way like death sentences to patients who have them,” she claimed.