Stem Cell Therapy Eastern Europe
Stem cell clinics in Eastern Europe face limited, or no, regulation on the use of stem cells to treat so-called ‘incurable’ conditions or perform ‘Anti-Ageing’ treatments. Concerns over the possible illegal trade of foetal stem cells and infant body parts from the Ukraine has cast a shadow over the activities of clinics in this region, with some remaining tainted by association with the scandal that emerged in 2005-6. Some clinics have subsequently chosen to use only autologous adult stem cells harvested from the patients themselves in order to avoid the legal, ethical, and political consequences of using either embryonic stem cells or umbilical cord blood from undisclosed sources. Concerns have also been expressed over the lack of evidence and direct selling methods used to entice vulnerable patients into having often exorbitantly priced treatments (Lau, 2008).
Continued Controversy
Major clinics in Eastern Europe include those in Russia and the Ukraine with some of these sourcing their stem cells from the much maligned Institute for Problems in Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of Ukraine. In 2006 the BBC reporter Matthew Hill published an exposé on the possible kidnapping and murder of babies in Ukranian hospitals to furnish the international stem cell trade with lucrative biological material. Reporters interviewing many women in the Ukraine at the time found an atmosphere of fear, with many claiming that their babies had been stolen, that they had been told they had died but then were not allowed to see them. The scandal affected many clinics around the world who had their use of foetal and umbilical stem cells called into question, and a number of clinics remain silent as to the origin of the material. Some beauty salons in Russia were purportedly using material derived from infants for regenerative facial treatments; the presence of actual stem cells was not disclosed, and the ethics of the practice garnered little attention by those applying or undergoing the treatments. The Cellulite Clinic in Moscow was also, apparently, offering such treatments (Thompson, 2006).
The List of Stem Cell Clinics
Eastern European stem cell clinics include EmCell, NeuroVita, Stem Cells for Hope, Vita Cell (for which information is scarce) and The Centre of Medico-Biological Technologies (CMBT). Further details of these can be found on the following pages, with the exception of VitaCell which remains rather mysterious. The relative safety of the treatments provided at these clinics remains unknown, with none of them publishing clinical trial data, and many of them offering only anecdotal evidence for the safety and efficacy of their therapies. A number of bombastic and overblown claims can be found in the promotional material of the clinics’ websites along with, in some cases, a clear misrepresentation of the dangers of any invasive medical procedure in terms of infection or other complication.
