Remember when adult stem cell advocates were called “anti-science” by the embryonic stem cell lobby for arguing that we could have our regenerative medicine and non-contentious ethics too?
I do. Well, the so-called anti-scientists had it far more right than their accusers. Adult stem cells from patients’ own bodies have been shown in studies to halve deaths from heart failure in comparison to patients receiving placebo. From the Telegraph story:
Stem cells can repair a damaged heart and potentially halve the number of people dying from heart failure, scientists have shown, in a major breakthrough for regenerative medicine…
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.
I did a Google search and found very few stories covering this wonderful breakthrough. How telling about media bias, still in the tank for the embryonic approach.
Indeed, if this had been an embryonic stem cell breakthrough, you would have heard the headlines. Don’t be surprised if the next embryonic stem cell animal study brings greater news coverage than this very hopeful story of an ethical technique now alleviating great human suffering.