Concern As Hundreds of US Clinics Offer Unapproved Stem Cell Treatments

Hundreds of clinics in the USA comprise an unregulated market selling stem cell treatments to Americans, various new sources have been reporting. ResearchGate cited a new study that has uncovered "570 clinics in almost every state in the U.S." which are pushing unapproved stem cell interventions for sports injuries, autistic disorders, Alzheimer's disease and numerous other conditions.

The study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, applied "Internet key word searches, text mining, and content analysis of company websites" in investigating direct-to-consumer marketing by American businesses. Authors Leigh Turner and Paul Knoepfler reported finding the largest number of unregulated stem cell clinics operating in California (113), Florida (104), and Texas (71).

Furthermore, they named the locales of Beverly Hills, New York, and San Antonio as "hot spots" for the marketing of the unapproved procedures. Turner and Knopfler declined to characterize the operations as illegal, instead calling for greater federal supervision of the infantile industry.

Warnings about unregulated stem cell clinics have largely turned their gaze on operations in Mexico, China and the Caribbean that promote "stem cell tourism." But the issue apparently lies closer to home for Americans.

"In almost every state now, people can go locally to get stem-cell 'treatments,' " said University of California biologist Knoepfler in The Washington Post.

Turner and Knopfler were particularly concerned over clinics that were advertising stem cell therapy for autism, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy (a condition that primarily afflicts children).

"These are the conditions that most concern me because there is the most striking gap between the marketing claims being made and the actual evidence that is available," said Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, to Scientific American.

There is plenty of evidence supporting the efficacy of stem cell therapy in treating conditions such as leukemia, lymphoma, bone marrow disease, sickle cell anemia, inherited immune system disorder and several inherited metabolic disorders. But the clinics highlighted in the study are the unscrupulous businesses that have played on the public's fascination with stem cells to market therapies of unproven effectiveness.