This is good news that Dr. Grekos is making future plans. I hope that they will also include membership in ICMS.
Stem-Cell Therapy
My Illegal Heart
Men's Health
Facing death inspires desperate measures. Like having your stem cells drawn in Florida, sent to Israel for processing, and shot into your ailing heart in the Dominican Republic. How far would you go to save your own life?
By: Mark Cohen,
Dr. Grekos says he has already begun planning for the day when stem-cell therapy becomes available in the United States, and he is working on a two-pronged strategy: moving treatment for any approved uses to his cardiology practice in Naples, and continuing to use unapproved treatments off shore. He says he just gained approval to treat patients in Freeport, in the Bahamas.
Recognizing that little can be done to stop the off shore clinics, and in an effort to review those clinics' claims, a group of scientists and doctors recently teamed up to create the International Cellular Medicine Society (ICMS). At this online registry, off shore clinics have patient results tracked and verified by an objective third-party source. But of 20 off-shore clinics contacted for a survey, only 11 responded, and only one met the criteria used by the ICMS to ascertain safety: TheraVitae. The report concluded that the most troubling aspect about the stem-cell clinics was a lack of transparency: "Nearly all the evaluated clinics refused to answer all questions posed."
Regenocyte did not participate because the survey was only for companies that process their own stem cells. But Regenocyte is not sharing its results with the ICMS. "When I first talked to Dr. Grekos last summer, he seemed interested," says Christopher Centeno, M.D., the Denver pain-management specialist and ICMS member who founded Regenerative Sciences. "Then he had me talk to his business manager, who later got back to me and said they'd decided not to participate. The way he put it to me was, he just didn't see what's in it for them." By joining such a registry, Regenocyte would be opening up its treatments to the same statistical metrics used by clinical trials. Patients who failed to respond as favorably would be lumped in with the star performers who achieved 10-minute gains in their treadmill times. The focus of prospective patients could start to shift from the anecdotal evidence that now dominates the company's marketing to the law-of-averages bottom line.
Ron O'Leary answers the phone. He sounds out of breath. "Hey . . . How are you doing?" he says, his voice ragged and halting. "Sorry," he goes on. "I just got in from a bike ride." It's been 6 months since his stem-cell procedure and O'Leary, now 37, sounds to be settling back into his old routine. That is, his old old routine, the one he had before a freak-of-nature heart malady reduced him to puttering around like a geriatric.
A few weeks earlier, O'Leary traveled to Naples for his 6-month follow-up. His ejection fraction had increased to 44, which was 14 points above where it was before the doctors repaired parts of his heart. He didn't experience the 21-point jump that Dr. Grekos says is typical, but 14 points is a significant improvement.
For O'Leary, though, the most telling test may have been one he administered to himself a week before his office visit. He'd ventured out onto a local bike trail for a 20-mile ride with two friends. "It's not like I was racing Lance Armstrong; these guys are in their 50s," he says. "On the way back I took off for a stretch. I left them behind. That's when I knew. I feel like there's nothing I can't do."
Stem-Cell Therapy
My Illegal Heart
Men's Health
Facing death inspires desperate measures. Like having your stem cells drawn in Florida, sent to Israel for processing, and shot into your ailing heart in the Dominican Republic. How far would you go to save your own life?
By: Mark Cohen,
Dr. Grekos says he has already begun planning for the day when stem-cell therapy becomes available in the United States, and he is working on a two-pronged strategy: moving treatment for any approved uses to his cardiology practice in Naples, and continuing to use unapproved treatments off shore. He says he just gained approval to treat patients in Freeport, in the Bahamas.
Recognizing that little can be done to stop the off shore clinics, and in an effort to review those clinics' claims, a group of scientists and doctors recently teamed up to create the International Cellular Medicine Society (ICMS). At this online registry, off shore clinics have patient results tracked and verified by an objective third-party source. But of 20 off-shore clinics contacted for a survey, only 11 responded, and only one met the criteria used by the ICMS to ascertain safety: TheraVitae. The report concluded that the most troubling aspect about the stem-cell clinics was a lack of transparency: "Nearly all the evaluated clinics refused to answer all questions posed."
Regenocyte did not participate because the survey was only for companies that process their own stem cells. But Regenocyte is not sharing its results with the ICMS. "When I first talked to Dr. Grekos last summer, he seemed interested," says Christopher Centeno, M.D., the Denver pain-management specialist and ICMS member who founded Regenerative Sciences. "Then he had me talk to his business manager, who later got back to me and said they'd decided not to participate. The way he put it to me was, he just didn't see what's in it for them." By joining such a registry, Regenocyte would be opening up its treatments to the same statistical metrics used by clinical trials. Patients who failed to respond as favorably would be lumped in with the star performers who achieved 10-minute gains in their treadmill times. The focus of prospective patients could start to shift from the anecdotal evidence that now dominates the company's marketing to the law-of-averages bottom line.
Ron O'Leary answers the phone. He sounds out of breath. "Hey . . . How are you doing?" he says, his voice ragged and halting. "Sorry," he goes on. "I just got in from a bike ride." It's been 6 months since his stem-cell procedure and O'Leary, now 37, sounds to be settling back into his old routine. That is, his old old routine, the one he had before a freak-of-nature heart malady reduced him to puttering around like a geriatric.
A few weeks earlier, O'Leary traveled to Naples for his 6-month follow-up. His ejection fraction had increased to 44, which was 14 points above where it was before the doctors repaired parts of his heart. He didn't experience the 21-point jump that Dr. Grekos says is typical, but 14 points is a significant improvement.
For O'Leary, though, the most telling test may have been one he administered to himself a week before his office visit. He'd ventured out onto a local bike trail for a 20-mile ride with two friends. "It's not like I was racing Lance Armstrong; these guys are in their 50s," he says. "On the way back I took off for a stretch. I left them behind. That's when I knew. I feel like there's nothing I can't do."