EmCell Clinic
Emcell – Ukraine
Emcell in the Ukraine were thought to have treated over 2000 patients up until 2008, with many more likely to have been treated since (Lau, 2008). Their own figure taken form their website claims that 6000 stem cell transplants have been conducted worldwide since they began pracitising. Based in Kiev, the Embryonic Tissues Center was originally opened in 1992 as an IVF clinic. The scientists behind this were from the Institute for Problems in Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of Ukraine, the organization implicated in serious allegations over the misappropriation and distribution of foetuses and infants in the Ukraine, discussed elsewhere on this site. Alexander Smikodub and Alexey Karpenko now run the clinic and conduct numerous stem cell treatments after founding, in 1993-94, the Cell Therapy Clinic of the National Medical University. Treatments offered include stem cell therapy for:
● AIDS/HIV
● Amy otrophic Lateral Sclerosis
● Alzheimer’s Disease
● Anaemia
● Anti-Ageing
● Arterial Hypertension
● Cancer
● Diabetes
● Eye Diseases
● Idiopathic Encephalopathy
● Ischaemic Heart Disease
● Liver Disease
● Muscular Dystrophy
● Multiple Sclerosis
● Parkinson’s Disease
● Ulcertative Colitis
● Crohn’s Disease
● Rheumatoid Arthritis
● Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Emcell use foetal stem cells to treat these diseases and make various claims on their website over success rates for each condition. These claims are based on anecdotal evidence rather than rigorous placebo-controlled, double blind clinical trials. As an example, their promotional copy discussing treatment of Multiple Sclerosis claims that
“treatment with fetal stem cells results in the pronounced positive effect in all cases. The most successful results of the therapy are reported in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (successful rate up to 90%) but in other types of multiple sclerosis patients also report improvement of their condition (successful rate up to 59%).”
Debatable Claims of Success
No scientific evidence is available to consolidate these claims, and the idea of a pronounced positive effect in all cases seems a little hard to tally with the lack of patients’ own reports regarding the success of their treatment here. Moreover, Emcell claims that their treatment is entirely safe, and has no risk of immune reaction due to the origin of the stem cells from ‘legally aborted’ foetuses. Leaving aside the issues, discussed elsewhere, of the possible illegal procurement and trade of infant body parts from the Ukraine, the idea that any stem cell treatment or, indeed, any surgical procedure at all is entirely safe is debatable.
Foetal progenitor cells are capable of differentiating into all types of cell in the body, and it is their plasticity that makes them preferable in some senses to autologous adult stem cells used in other clinics around the world. However, a major concern over foetal stem cells is their potential to form tumors, with many research scientists remaining worried about the unregulated use of this technology when such safety issues have not been resolved. That the stem cells are injected intravenously or placed under the skin, rather than being directly injected into the brain is some consolation, but constitutes only a minor reassurance.
A Closer Look at EmCell
The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Therapy Development Association has tried to investigate Emcell but was met with silence from the company’s employees upon requests for information. Writing in Panorama, an Italian investigative journalism magazine, Ferraris and Molinari (2010) looked into Emcell’s activities by pretending to be patients, or relatives of patients, enquiring about treatment. Their story, which won first prize in the EU Health Prize for Journalists 2010, detailed how the Emcell clinic claimed to have treated over 3000 patients on the Italian version of their website, and readily admitted their fictional uncle Claudio, an Alzheimer’s patient, on having seen very little medical evidence for his condition just two days after the false medical details were filled in online. The clinic informs the journalists that stem cell treatment ‘stops the degenerative process associated with Alzheimer’s Disease’. No proof is offered of this claim.
The Emcell clinic offers package trips, with board and lodging included, airport transfers, and the treatment itself, for around 8000Euros for a three day stay. The treatment is highly unlikely to be covered by any medical insurance. Patients are advised to exercise extreme caution when considering this clinic for stem cell therapy as transparency over safety, and efficacy have not been forthcoming. Neither Smikodub, nor Karpenko, have published any papers on stem cell treatments, and the clinic is yet to provide anything but highly controlled anecdotal case studies to support their bombastic claims of success.
