Cell-based therapy – navigating troubled waters

Abstract

Cells and engineered tissue can be used to treat an increasing number of diseases. This development, together with promising pre-clinical data in regenerative medicine, has raised the expectations of many patients. However, this situation tends to make people vulnerable to the lures of companies that abuse the stem cell promise. The problem is compounded by people’s propensity to believe that the healing powers of positive thinking, large sums of money and foreign institutions are greater than those of therapies developed through well-tested, properly constructed, clinical trials.