StemCell Therapy

Somehow time has flown by so that Ive been around for ages in the stem cell universe and some unproven stem cell clinic type firms, like the well-known Panama stem cell clinic that sells autism treatments, are also long-timers.

Its been an odd parallel existence for more than a decade.

Todays post is focused on this Panama stem cell clinic. Think of it as a fact-check or a scientific review of a sort. Overall, I believe there are serious reasons for concern about The Stem Cell Institute.

Long-time stem cell clinics | The Stem Cell Institute in Panama | What they sell | Who works at The Stem Cell Institute? | Lack of expertise & specialty training? | Lack of data | Cost of stem cell therapy in Panama $16,000-$30,000 and up | Take home message | References

Quick Article Summary and Claim Review.Stem cells are a still unproven approach to autism and other conditions. The Stem Cell Institute in Panama claims that umbilical cord stem cells can help autistic children and people with other conditions. In my view there are no strong data to support this claim, particularly on autism. The most rigorous study to date by Duke suggests no consistent benefit. There are definite risks too and the procedures are expensive. You should consult your childs pediatrician.

Both the Panama clinic place, run by Neil Riordan and called simply enough The Stem Cell Institute, Texas stem cell clinic Celltex, and the Regenexx clinic brand come to mind in this long-termer category. These three firms are quite different though. Ive written many times before about Celltex and a bit aboutRegenexx, but less so about The Stem Cell Institute. My most recent item on this Panama place was related to the puzzling threads between them and the Duke Autism Program.

There are stem cell clinics all over the world, but some draw more attention and customers than others. I also view some as posing potentially higher or lower risks on different levels.

The Stem Cell Institute in Panama strikes me as risky on some specific levels such as having many children getting unproven cellular injections as part of their business model. This place seems particularly successful with their PR too.

I dont know about you, but for me the name institute implies a non-profit research institution, but to the best of my knowledge The Stem Cell Institute is a for-profit. While it does some research, I dont see that as its primary mission.

The Stem Cell Institute offers injections for a wide menu of health conditions using umbilical cord and other kinds of cells. You can see a screenshot I took from their website recently to get a sense of their marketing.

Its strikingly diverse, raising the question for me of how one place can purportedly have the expertise to try to treat so many different conditions.

To cover all of these conditions with care and expertise Id say that youd need a neurologist, an immunologist, an orthopedist, a cardiologist, and pediatric physician specialists of several kinds.

Do they have the needed medical staff with board certifications in so many different specialties?

In regard to the above question, who are the doctors and other staff at the Panama stem cell clinic?

Last I checked their website, they listed 7 physicians in total including a medical director, a clinical trials research physician, and staff physicians.

Only the first 3 doctors listed have bios describing their training. Do they have the needed expertise?

Of these 3, the Medical Director, Jorge Paz-Rodriguez, MD, appears to be an internist. Hernan H. Hernandez, MD may be a hematologist. Dr. Cindy Leu may be a general practitioner. I wasnt able to clear up if she has a specialty.

The clinical trials doctor listed, Giselle Fernandez, MD, also might be a GP, but Im not positive. As to the staff physicians, I was not able to determine if they have any specialties or are GPs despite looking around on the web and watching some videos. Leader Neil Riordan is a Ph.D., not an M.D.

Overall, as a result of the lack of information and the nature of what I could find, in my opinion, it does not seem like this clinic clearly has the needed expertise to treat so many medical conditions and patients ranging from pediatric to geriatric. In my view, this increases risks for patients.

If these Stem Cell Institute physicians have more specialty training than I could find, I will update this post.

I also view the offerings of The Stem Cell Institute as lacking in rigorous data to back them up. Neil Riordan has some publications, but the research in these papers relevant to what they are selling is not convincing at all to me. It does not show that the stem cell offerings, such as umbilical cord MSCs, actually work. The papers also do not indicate that they are definitely safe for the conditions being marketed.

The clinical studies generally do not have placebo controls, randomization, or double-blinding. If you are developing an as yet unproven cellular therapy, it may be fine to have early phase trials without placebos, etc., but if you are already marketing and injecting folks with this unproven stuff and charging for it, its an entirely different situation. The Stem Cell Institute seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse. Note that while others have done research on cord blood cells for autism including Duke, the data are generally very discouraging.

It is expensive to go to the Stem Cell Institute. Their own website mentions the cost as follows, $15,825 USD for children and $23,150 for adults. An important paper this year in Cytology by Jeremy Snyder and Leigh Turner, focusing in part on reverberations between the Stem Cell Institute and Duke, also discussed cost and fit into this general price range.

Like many stem cell clinics abroad and even in the US, the cost often ends up being a package including a hotel stay and ground transportation.

There are also many fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe that mention Panama stem cells and sometimes include patients mentioning about what they paid. All of this is generally consistent with a price range of $16,000-$30,000.

As with other clinics, the cost can go much higher than what is stated. Factors influencing cost include the number of injections and the type of condition. If you get several injections or go on multiple occasions over the course of months or years, the costs can go way up, even into the high tens of thousands.

Also, one should factor in the odds of attaining success in the medical condition that is the problem and with unproven stem cells the odds of real documented success in my view are very low. Then there are risks as well.

Overall, in my view there is a low probability of efficacy from what is being sold at this firm in Panama and we cant be sure about safety. At least some of the cells being sold are amplified in a lab, potentially increasing safety risks. As I said earlier, I also worry about the apparent lack of relevant (and Id say crucially needed) medical specialty training.

As a Ph.D. I cannot give medical advice, but as a stem cell biologist and long observer of clinical research in this arena as well as of unproven stem cell clinics, I personally would not go to this clinic or have a friend or loved one go.

If you have complaints about the Stem Cell Institute in Panama Id like to learn more about what your concerns are.

Crowdfunding, stem cell interventions and autism spectrum disorder: comparing campaigns related to an international stem cell clinic and US academic medical center, Jeremy Snyder and Leigh Turner, Cytology, March 2021.

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This entry was posted on August 27, 2022 at 2:11 am and is filed under Stem Cell Panama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |