Seems drastic, but showing good results for the untreatable among us

Sauce

Stem cell treatment gives hope to Crohn's disease sufferers

Sufferers from the debilitating bowel condition Crohn's disease may be cured using a groundbreaking stem cell treatment, according to the British doctor leading the research.

Initial findings from the world's first controlled trial of the procedure have raised hopes that it could banish the disease's symptoms for many years in up to half of the patients who undergo it.

The pioneering therapy involves "rebooting" the patient's immune system, by first destroying the cells that have attacked it to cause the Crohn's, and then replacing them.

Professor Chris Hawkey, a gastroenterologist at Nottingham University, is leading the Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Crohn's Disease (Astic) trial. So far, 15 patients from six European countries, including three Britons, have taken part, though others are being recruited.

"I'm hopeful that half or more of the patients who undergo stem cell transplantation may either be cured or have a long-term remission," said Hawkey.

Hawkey, other specialist doctors and patients involved in the trial will tomorrow meet the chancellor, Alastair Darling, to press for the NHS to offer better treatment across the UK to the estimated 60,000 people who have Crohn's and the 140,000 who suffer from colitis.

Crohn's is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes ulceration and inflammation of the digestive tract. Existing treatments all involve drugs, which help sufferers to control their symptoms, but do not offer a cure. It wrecks lives because its embarrassing and painful symptoms – including diarrhoea, stomach pains, fatigue and weight loss – can mean that those with the most severe form of Crohn's find it hard to go to school or college, hold down a job or plan a holiday.

The stem cell treatment, which takes two years, is very painful for patients, and involves risks including bleeding, infection and a 1%-2% chance of death. The stem cell transplantation is used to kill off the patient's old bone marrow, which produces the harmful cells that cause the Crohn's, and generate new cells.

I found this really interesting Cambium

I had just been researching Crohn\'s before I logged in

Going for my second colonoscopy and I,m
hoping Its just diverticular or duke of Argyll\'s

But I hope this is a successful treatment for anyone suffering from
a digestive disease

No worries Metalbasher. Hope your tests go ok.

I have only just come across this. It's all a bit confusing

In Feb of this year they are saying this
Science Daily

But they were trialling it in 2007
Science Daily

This is the current UK trial. Seems they are still after lab rats

From what I've digested overnight, it seems to be a long, painful, risky procedure. The hope of an all out cure is almost non existent at the moment. But it is helping a lot of people into, what seems like long term remission Who knows for the future.

e2a Does anyone have any experience or info about this sort of treatment in general? Cheers

thanks for the heads up!!

I was diagnosed with UC about six months ago and reading around various forums and general researching has painted a fairly grim picture so it is refreshing to read some good news at last I'll be keeping a close eye on this and I'm sure it'll bring some comfort for any severe chron's suffers out there.

What I do find encouraging is the number of potential treatments even if they do only offer short term releif. I've recently ditched the steroids in persuit of more gentle and natural treatments. I've recently found antihistamines seemingly can have some effect, yet are practically undocumented as a form of treatment for the condition. If anyone is interested I have a mini diary here: http://www.ulcerativecolitis.org.uk/coliti...f=18&t=1149 though you'll need to register to see it

Seemingly for some people the behavior of the condition bears some relation to the seasons. So the thinking behind antihistamines as treatment is to do with the possiblility of an environmental trigger such as an allogen.

Anyway its all pretty speculative, just though I'd bring it to the table

don't like the sound of that, any idea what it involves?




never really thought about that, and none of the doctors i've ever seen have asked either. but thinking back over the past few years I defiaintly feel healthier in the summer and the crohn's really kicks in about nov/dec time, def food for thought

From

All this is carried out in isolation, due to the obliteration of your immune system The more I read about it, the more I think that it's a bad idea at the moment....Like I say a possibility for the future though. Have seen something about 1-2% chance of death.

KidFix, sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I was falsely diagnosed with Colitis as a teenager, got a re-diagnosis after emergency surgery last year. The diseases are so similar I don't think it really matters I can't really put mine down to a seasonal thing, I'm pretty bad most of the time. But I do see the logic in that train of thought. I hope it works!

stem cell treatment is still in its infancy though, in the years to come who knows....

resetting the immune system can hardly be a walk in the park, pretty amazing they can pull this kinda stuff off at all

sorry to hear your symptoms are consistently bad Cambium, reading around it seems to be the case for a lot of people. I'm fortunate at least that mine is relatively mild and these gentler treatments can seemingly make some difference.

StonedBrittania, glad it may be helpful to you, there seem to be plenty of sufferers out there, just not many people talking...

You're right Kidfix.This kind of treatment is in it's infancy. That is partly why I threw this up.....to see if any members had any personal experience with this. (Should have maybe adjusted the title )

Who knows where it will go? Back up body parts, just in case They seem to be carrying this out with a view to it being widely available for chronic cases in a few years......If all goes well.

Good luck with your treatment Kidfix

e2a- Surely this will be applicable to all autoimmune diseases, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis etc.....