The Global Emergence of Unregulated Stem Cell Treatments for Respiratory Diseases Professional Societies Need to Act

摘要

Despite the potential promise of new cell-based therapeutic approaches, unproven stem cell treatments for various ailments including lung diseases are a growing global problem (1). Notably, an increasing number of outfits offer expensive, cell-based therapies that are biologically implausible, known to be ineffective, or have no proven benefit. Falling under the umbrella term of stem cell medical tourism, these outfits prey on desperate patients with severe and often otherwise incurable diseases. In addition, there are documented cases of harm to recipients in some particularly egregious cases of unregulated use (2, 3). Remarkably, an increasing number of such clinics now operate within the United States. Hence, there is growing concern in the medical and regulatory communities (4, 5).