A century ago, magnetism and electricity were being used in all kinds of quack medical procedures. Something similar may be happening now with stem cells. Hundreds of clinics have popped up across the nation using all kinds of untested methods of introducing stem cells, some from donors, others harvested from the patients, to treat an array of problems:
Some clinics advertise treatments for cosmetic applications, including "stem cell facelifts," "stem cell breast augmentation" and sexual enhancement procedures. Other centers offer interventions for 30 or more diseases and injuries, including popular orthopedic conditions, neurological disorders, degenerative conditions, spinal cord injuries and cardiac diseases. Sometimes, the doctors involved are working in an unfamiliar field; a dermatologist, say, presenting a stem cell therapy for a neurological condition.
In most cases, these cells will simply die out like any other infection. But if they should somehow gain a toehold, stem cells are good at both growing and bypassing the body’s immune system in the process; they have to be to do their job. But that also means, if a bunch of foreign or native stem cells are introduced into an organ or region they could go on to produce a mass that grows uncontrollably and turns into life-threatening cancer.
Embryonic and adult stem cells are incredibly useful in research because they do indeed hold the secret of how our bodies develop from a single cell, and how our bodies grow, repair and maintain themselves throughout life. The hope is we will learn to turn various features on and off in the body’s adult stem cell population, to the point that new tissue and organs can be regenerated. If we succeed, the future applications are staggering. The controversy over stem cells erupted when right-to-lifers objected to embryonic stem cells that were slated to be thrown out were instead diverted to that kind of research.
There is only one stem cell treatment that’s been tested and approved for legit use: bone marrow transplants for patients with leukemia or other diseases of the blood. Those are only undertaken after a careful screening for compatibility between donor and recipient has been performed.
But just taking raw stem cells and throwing them into a person’s body, and expecting a miracle, is probably as useless as wearing a Victorian-era magnet on your head, and in some rarer cases, it could potentially be far more dangerous.