Will stem cells help cure and treat patients?

Yes. Stem cells currently help cure and treat patients but these stem cells are found in adults and do not have the scientific and ethical problems associated with human cloning and embryonic (“early”) stem cell research.

However, the type of research this initiative would fund (embryonic and cloning) has not treated or cured a single patient anywhere in the world.

Do you really want your tax dollars going toward unproven, unsafe, and unethical experiments?

Supporters of this initiative cannot offer any evidence of cures and treatments. However, Missourians have access to adult stem cell therapy which currently provides safe and successful treatments for more than 70 diseases and injuries. A steady flow of published research indicates great promise in the area of adult stem cell therapy, also known as non-embryonic stem cells. These are tangible therapies that are available today.

Therapies using stem cells from sources such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, the brain and nose have already successfully treated patients with:

• Multiple sclerosis
• Heart disease
• Sickle cell anemia
• Spinal cord injuries
• Cancer
• Leukemia
• Parkinson’s disease

The therapeutic benefits to patients demonstrate that advancements using adult stem cells surpass any animal research currently underway using embryonic stem cells.

There are currently at least 67 human clinical applications using adult stem cells:

ANEMIAS & OTHER BLOOD CONDITIONS:
     • Sickle cell anemia
     • Sideroblastic anemia
     • Aplastic anemia
     • Red cell aplasia (failure of red blood cell development)
     • Amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia
     • Thalassemia (genetic [inherited] disorders all of which
               involve underproduction of hemoglobin)
     • Primary amyloidosis (A disorder of plasma cells)
     • Diamond blackfan anemia
     • Fanconi’s anemia
     • Chronic Epstein-Barr infection (similar to Mono)

AUTO-IMMUNE DISEASES:
     • Systemic lupus (auto-immune condition that can affect
               skin, heart, lungs, kidneys, joints, and nervous system)
     • Sjogren’s syndrome (autoimmune disease w/ symptoms
               similar to arthritis)
     • Myasthenia (An autoimmune neuromuscular disorder)
     • Autoimmune cytopenia
     • Scleromyxedema (skin condition)
     • Scleroderma (skin disorder)
     • Crohn’s disease (chronic inflammatory disease of the
               intestines)
     • Behcet’s disease
     • Rheumatoid arthritis
     • Juvenile arthritis
     • Multiple sclerosis
     • Polychondritis (chronic disorder of the cartilage)
     • Systemic vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels)
     • Alopecia universalis

CANCERS:
     • Brain tumors—medulloblastoma and glioma
     • Retinoblastoma (cancer)
     • Ovarian cancer
     • Skin cancer: Merkel cell carcinoma
     • Testicular cancer
     • Lymphoma
     • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
     • Hodgkin’s lymphoma
     • Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
     • Acute myelogenous leukemia
     • Chronic myelogenous leukemia
     • Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia
     • Cancer of the lymph nodes: Angioimmunoblastic
               lymphadenopathy
     • Multiple myeloma (cancer affecting white blood cells of
               the immune system)
     • Myelodysplasia (bone marrow disorder)
     • Breast cancer
     • Neuroblastoma (childhood cancer of the nervous system)
     • Renal cell carcinoma (cancer of the kidney)
     • Soft tissue sarcoma (malignant tumor that begins in the
               muscle, fat, fibrous tissue, blood vessels)
     • Various solid tumors
     • Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (type of lymphoma)
     • Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
     • POEMS syndrome (osteosclerotic myeloma)
     • Myelofibrosis

CARDIOVASCULAR:
     • Acute Heart damage
     • Chronic coronary artery disease

IMMUNODEFICIENCIES:
     • Severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome
     • X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome
     • X-linked hyper immunoglobulin M syndrome

NEURAL DEGENERATIVE DISEASES & INJURIES:
     • Parkinson’s disease
     • Spinal cord injury
     • Stroke damage

OCULAR:
     • Corneal regeneration

WOUNDS & INJURIES:
     • Limb gangrene
     • Surface wound healing
     • Jawbone replacement
     • Skull bone repair

OTHER METABOLIC DISORDERS:
     • Sandhoff disease (hereditary genetic disorder)
     • Hurler’s syndrome (hereditary genetic disorder)
     • Osteogenesis imperfecta (bone/cartilage disorder)
     • Krabbe Leukodystrophy (hereditary genetic disorder)
     • Osteopetrosis (genetic bone disorder)
     • Cerebral X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy

Some would say this isn’t enough and we need access to early stem cell research as well. Yet, early stem cell research has provided NO therapies, NO treatments, and NO tangible benefits for patients. On the contrary, adult stem cells are offering hope to sick and injured patients today.

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