Texas Gov. Rick Perry last month underwent a procedure where stem cells, made from fat taken from his body, were put into his bloodstream to see if they might find their way to help heal the bones in his back.
Harvard’s stem cell expert George Daley expressed his concern. “As a highly influential person of power, Perry’s actions have the unfortunate potential to push desperate patients into the clinic of quacks,” he said.
Most of the quacks are trying to make money doing the procedure. In fact, Perry is not only a user of oddball therapy; he has also promoted it. He has been calling for investments using public funds in adult stem cell companies. Last month, three weeks after he got his fat stem cell “treatment,” he wrote a letter to the Texas Medical Board, which is considering new rules regarding adult stem cells use. Perry told the doctors he hoped Texas would “become the world’s leader in the research and use of adult stem cells.” He asked board members to “recognize the revolutionary potential that adult stem cell research and therapies have on our nation’s health, quality of life and economy.”
Perry, the newest GOP presidential candidate, has access to the best possible care and advice. Yet he and his doctor chose a treatment beyond mainstream medicine. The treatment carries potential risks ranging from blood clots to infection to cancer and may even run afoul of federal rules, doctors say. At least one patient died of a clot hours after an infusion of fat-derived stem cells outside the United States. It's not clear how much of this Perry might have known.
His doctor and friend, orthopedist Dr. Stanley Jones, could not be reached for comment despite repeated requests to the spokeswoman for his Houston-area hospital. Jones told the Texas Tribune that he went to Japan for a stem cell treatment that helped his arthritis and that he had never before tried the procedure he used on Perry. He also said it had no side effects or risks.
Some orthopedic surgeons, including Dr. Christoph Meyer at Jones' hospital, are experimenting with stem cells to help bones heal. The cells usually are taken from bone marrow and injected or implanted in the trouble spot, such as a knee or shoulder. The theory is that these “master cells” will follow cues from cells around them and form bone or cartilage, though scientists worry they also might spur unwanted growth and cancer.
Dr. Thomas Einhorn, orthopedics chairman at Boston University, has tested some experimental stem cell therapies himself. He said one concern is that Perry's cells were grown in a lab dish with other ingredients where there is more of a risk they will transform into cancer and any breach in sterility could lead to an infection once they were put into a vein. He also took issue with infusing the cells into Perry's bloodstream. “I can't think of any reason to do that. I wouldn't want to cause a blood clot.”
It also enters a gray area with the FDA, which does not regulate how doctors practice medicine but does oversee medical products. Growing the cells in culture and possibly mixing them with other substances may make these modified cells a product. The FDA got an injunction barring a Colorado company from growing marrow-derived stem cells in this way; lawsuits over that are pending. FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said that the agency could not comment on Perry's treatment and that each case must be evaluated individually.
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