“Stem cell therapy halves deaths from heart failure”

From the Telegraph (UK). A study in the USA. These are autologous transplants (like I had for my lymphoma) using the patient's own stem cells.

Now, in the largest trial ever conducted, doctors in the US have proven that even the most serious cases of heart failure can be repaired using stem cells harvested from a patient’s own bone marrow.

End-stage patients, whose only hope was a heart transplant, were treated with stem cells in a single operation.  Doctors found the group were 37 per cent less likely to have been admitted to hospital in the 12 months following the operation and half as likely to have died than those on placebo. 

The procedure takes just two hours and most patients were discharged a day after surgery.

"For the last 15 years everyone has been talking about cell therapy and what it can do. These results suggest that it really works," says lead author and cardiac surgeon Dr Amit Pate, director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the University of Utah.

"This is the first trial of cell therapy showing that it can have a meaningful impact on the lives of patients with heart failure.”

*****

A small amount of bone marrow was drawn from each patients from which two types of stem cell were extracted, and their number increased in the lab.

After scanning the patient’s heart to see where the damage was greatest, the stem cells were then delivered to those areas using a catheter.

The group were then followed for 12 months with doctors monitoring deaths, hospitilsations and unplanned clinic visits. During that period eight patients died who had been given a placebo, compared with four who were on the stem cell treatment.

82 per cent of patients who did not have the therapy needed hospital treatment during that time, compared with 51 per cent of the stem cell patients.

Obviously more to do, but pretty promising start.