Stem cell therapy could halve deaths from heart failure, says study

A new study suggests that end-stage heart failure patients with stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow experienced 37% fewer cardiac events, including death and admission to hospital.

The findings of the study, which were presented at the 2016 American College of Cardiology Conference and published in The Lancet, have been seen as a major breakthrough for regenerative medicine. In the largest trial ever conducted, doctors have shown that even the most serious cases of heart failure can be repaired using stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow.

The trials involved 126 end-stage patients, whose only hope was a heart transplant, from 31 hospitals across the US. Each was assigned stem cell therapy of a placebo and the doctors did not know which they were getting.

A small amount of bone marrow was drawn from each patient from which two types of stem cell were extracted, and their number increased in the lab. After scanning the patient’s heart to see where the damage was greatest, the stem cells were then delivered to those areas using a catheter.  Patients were treated with stem cells in a single operation. Doctors found that the group were 37% less likely to have been admitted to hospital in the 12 months following the operation and half as likely to have died than those on a placebo.

The study says that the procedure takes less than two hours and most patients were discharged a day after surgery.

“For the last 15 years everyone has been talking about cell therapy and what it can do. These results suggest that it really works,” says lead author and cardiac surgeon Dr Amit Pate, director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the University of Utah.

“This is the first trial of cell therapy showing that it can have a meaningful impact on the lives of patients with heart failure.”

Prof Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, says, “There are over half a million people in the UK, and millions around the world living with debilitating heart failure.

“Treatments are limited and the only ‘cure’ is a heart transplant. Regenerative treatments that repair the damage caused by a heart attack, which often leads to heart failure, are urgently needed.

“Over the last decade there has been a series of trials involving injecting a patient’s own bone marrow-derived cells to help repair the failing heart.  Most studies have been small and overall shown the procedure is safe but the clinical benefit, if any, has been marginal.

“Bone marrow stem cell therapy appears to be safe but using it to improve heart function and the quality of life for patients depends on further research.”

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