Study: Lupus Patients Respond Well to Stem Cell-Based Treatment
by Mary Rettig
February 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A researcher at a Chicago hospital says bone marrow stem cells are proving to be an effective tool for combating life-threatening lupus.Lupus is an auto-immune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own organs. Dr. Richard Burt, the chief of immunotherapy at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, says a study he conducted recently involved giving patients blood stem cells from their own bone marrow to, in a way, regenerate the body's immune system.
Dr. Burt says his study shows the blood stem cells can induce remission of lupus. "And about eight years ago we started a trial using autologous -- that is, a patient's own blood stem cells, to try to regenerate a new immune system and see if that could put their disease, in this particular case lupus, into a remission," he explains.
Burt says the study found that 50 percent of the patients, all of whom had exhausted all other available treatment options, were disease-free after five years. He calls those results "very encouraging."
"[O]ne way of looking at it is that the glass is either half-full or half-empty at five years," he says, "but what you have to realize is that you start with an empty glass. These patients have a very active disease, not controlled by any therapy, [but they] respond to this treatment -- and by five years, 50 percent seem to maintain remission."
The study, he says, will now move on the randomized tests and compare the stem-cell therapy with the normal course of treatment. It may be several years before this becomes a treatment option, he adds.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
