Stem Crooks

KP Investigation: How fraudulent doctors make money on stem cells
Alexandra KUCHUK, KP, 11.03.2010
Published on the TOPNEWS websiteDoctors say that many Russian celebrities are "rejuvenated" by a newfangled method in a well-known Moscow research institute...

A Komsomolka correspondent also went to try to get treated with stem cells.

Rejuvenation ruined Samokhina and Polishchuk?The "mystery" of stem cells has been exciting the public for years.

Once again, the wave rose after the death of Anna Samokhina. Stomach cancer literally in a few months "devoured" a beautiful woman, a talented actress... While the country was trying to recover from the shock, the famous actor and "people's blogger" Stas Sadalsky wrote literally the following in his online diary: Anna Samokhina (as well as Alexander Abdulov, Oleg Yankovsky and Lyubov Polishchuk, who recently died of cancer) injected stem cells into the body at different times.

"After treatment, a miracle happens for a short moment: a person becomes younger, is renewed," Sadalsky writes, "but at the same time the growth of cancer cells is provoked, and they devour the body instantly."

Doctors confirm Sadalsky's theory: there is evidence that stem cells really accelerate all processes in the body, including growth... cancer cells. However – an important clarification! – there is very little absolutely reliable knowledge about cells, both about their magical healing properties and about destructive ones... But the rumors (one is more scandalous than the other!) more than enough.

Therefore, it is not surprising that we also wanted to try to figure out what is really behind the next panacea – the future of medicine or a grandiose fraud of gullible citizens?

"We saved Yeltsin's liver"There are few "Stem Cell Rejuvenation" ads on the Internet.

However, after reading it, I see that half of the links lead to a large federal medical research institute. They advertise revitalization – "the newest method of rejuvenation using stem cells, allowing without changing (is it really possible to change them already?! – Author's note) aging and damaged organs, without medications and surgeons to renew and rejuvenate their cellular composition." Further, for greater importance, there is a link to the data of American scientists that we begin to age from the age of 30, and by the age of 40 we are already unhealthy by definition... Only their own stem cells can stop the withering. And if it doesn't help, you can start being treated by "strangers"...

I'm calling.

– How old are you? – a pleasant female voice asks an unpleasant question.

– Forty–three, - I lie, I'm just exactly 30. – My health is already playing tricks! And wrinkles appeared!

– Well, with wrinkles, it's to cosmetologists. We restore the body from the inside. And you will actually get younger! The immune system will be restored, you will be less ill, sleep less and get enough sleep... This case has been put on stream.

– Is it safe? And then they write in the media...

– The biggest mafia in the world is pharmacological, – instructively explains to me the background of the scandal "pleasant voice" – Anfisa Andreevna Mukhina (name changed). – It is not profitable for them to treat people without medicines! But now that Yeltsin has already died, I can say: it was we who restored his liver destroyed by cirrhosis with stem cells! And he lived for another 10 years. We have a lot of famous people among our patients. Come, I need to see you!

I'm making an appointment for a consultation.

Bah, I'm having menopause!

Fortunately, the consultation is free – as are the shoe covers at the entrance. Pregnant ladies float by in flocks. The specifics of the center are as follows. Pot-bellied generals are booths with the laconic name "Cash Register". In general, I was warned: on any issue, people go to this research institute exclusively with a suitcase of money.

– Alexandra? – Anfisa Andreevna, a strict, well-groomed lady without age, looks at me incredulously. Then it turned out that she was not even a doctor in the first place, but a biologist. – Let's go talk in our new room.

In a white-walled office, Mukhina silently dissects me with a look like a guilty mouse. I quickly justify myself:

– Yes, I'm only 30. But I feel like I'm at 50! You wouldn't have accepted me for anything if I had honestly told you my age.

– It's true, – Anfisa Andreevna relaxes. And then he listens to my "complaints" about my shattered health in a friendly way.

So, after about fifteen minutes we decided: I have all the signs... premature menopause! According to Anfisa Andreevna, the same (approximately) diagnosis was found in one TV presenter – a skilled cook. They were able to help her here. Even gave birth!

Cocktail "Youth" for half a millionI am interested about oncological "complications" from treatment.

But Madame Mukhina is clearly avoiding a direct answer:

– Everything that is injected into the body cannot be absolutely safe.

And even the fact that my mother had cancer, it turns out, is not a reason for me to give up stem cells myself. It is only necessary to check carefully before "rejuvenation". Of course, if oncology, God forbid, is confirmed, I will not see stem cells. But! According to my future savior, one client-a lady with mastopathy insisted on treatment – so her precancerous cells disappeared. And one grandfather had polyps in the intestine (about which he "forgot" to warn doctors") from stem cells resolved.

– First, take detailed blood tests, – explains the biologist. – If everything is fine – there is no syphilis (oh, you have no idea how much there is now!), – we will decide on the choice of treatment more precisely. Most likely, two injections of stem cells will be needed. Your own. To get them, a plastic surgeon will give you microliposuction under local anesthesia – incisions on the abdomen – and take some adipose tissue. Then stem cells will be isolated from it and within a month they will be grown in special incubators. 100 or 200 million cells grow – and they will be injected back through your blood. Through an IV. In 15-20 minutes. And another infusion – in six months.

In total, such treatment will cost me 530 thousand rubles. Wow – as much as half a lemon for saving from menopause! Which is not yet there...

Clinical trials for patients' moneyWith an independent look (think, half a million!) I listen to the chirping of Anfisa Andreevna.

About important members of the government and about an elderly folk singer who lives with the young and constantly demands discounts on stem cells. About an elderly director who prefers to wait modestly for his turn in the corridor. And that, in fact, they serve much more stars, some just keep incognito – they bring her the patient's adipose tissue "number so-and-so", and she only grows stem cells from it.

And finally suddenly gives:

– We live in a wonderland! All over the world, clinical trials are at the expense of the state, and here at the expense of the patient.

Stop! So all these people are essentially participating in the experiments? And for their own – and huge! – money?! Why, it's THEY, the doctors, who have to pay me for participating in the experiment, so it is accepted throughout the civilized world when testing medicines!

– We have permission from the Ministry of Health for the collection, storage and clinical trials involving stem cells, – explains the biologist. – And according to the law, we have no right to take money from you for the tests. Therefore, it will be written in the contract that you pay only for the collection of stem cells. Sign a consent to participate in clinical trials, a permit for the type of medical insurance. We have our own insurance company in the center. You know, many stars who have been cooperating with us for a long time are not even insured anymore – they don't have time for paperwork! They just call and say: "Pick up" (apparently from a bank where frozen tissue samples are stored. – Author's note) cells, I'm going, I'll be on such and such a date..."

– And the guarantees? What are stem cells actually treating?

– It's easier to say what they don't treat! – Anfisa Andreevna presses. (On the clinic's website, in addition to "general rejuvenation", multiple sclerosis, paralysis, the consequences of strokes, neuralgia, ischemia, prostatitis, encephalopathy, cerebral palsy, heart attacks, cirrhosis of the liver, skin problems, arthritis, diabetes, etc., etc. are indicated, etc. – author's note). – Ineffective so far only in autoimmune diseases, amyotrophic sclerosis, some eye diseases. But research is still underway! And we have no complaints from customers.

Instead of a "panacea" – ordinary salineI left the center with a clear feeling: Anfisa Andreevna is telling the truth about half...

I believe that the stars and VIPs are spinning here. I believe that stem cells could cure some diseases for someone. I even believe in rejuvenation! I really want to believe... But no one knows what consequences will overtake you after this treatment in six months, a year, five years. Plus (even if the risk is attributed to the conscience of the patients themselves – they see what they sign!), I think all clients are greatly overpaying. It is unlikely that it costs half a million rubles to grow cells! According to Mukhina, they inject cells into about ten patients a day. So, about two and a half thousand people a year participate in experiments for their own money! Billions of rubles are spinning! Officially, 20 centers have permission for stem cells in the country. But many small clinics often offer stem cell treatment without any permits... unknown origin. Even in dental clinics, they say, from under the floor, proven clients are offered a stem cell injection. Like, teeth will become healthier...

– Before our center, I worked in a very famous Rublevsky clinic, – admitted Anfisa Andreevna. – God, what was going on there! Clients were injected with ordinary saline instead of stem cells. Outwardly, you can't tell them apart! Or, instead of their own stem cells, someone else's. And these are risks! Our center also used to inject other people's cells – from abortive material, but of high quality. 8 years ago, they opened a laboratory for growing "their own", that is, the client's native cells. It's easy to check. When you will be injected with cells, ask for a little "pour" into any container. (Stored in a regular refrigerator.) Cells can be submitted for "identification" to any genetic laboratory – where paternity is checked.

Everything seems to be like this. But after all, many experts are sure that instead of even the "native" elixir of youth, you can inject yourself with a potential bomb. And when it explodes, what will be the trigger – no one knows. In short, I decided to give up the honorable right to serve science for my blood money.

R.S. Cells of last hopeAfter the expert's explanations, I call Anfisa Andreevna back again.

– Sasha, I have such a happy day today, – she shouts into the phone. – I personally raised him to his feet... a paralyzed Rottweiler! But the veterinarians said: "Definitely put to sleep, there is no hope." I asked my medical friends, whose dog gave birth, to take pieces of placenta and bring them to me. And on this donor material, our Rottweiler got up and went! We have filmed all the treatment on video, we will post it online!

To be honest, I didn't have anything to answer. I just congratulated you.

– At first, everyone laughed at genetics, too, they considered it pseudoscience, – my friend, a cosmetologist, also countered my arguments. – They laughed at the fact that, they say, the shape of the nose can be inherited. After all, I think stem cells are the future.

However, as far as I know, no one paid the geneticists a lot of money for the right to be such a rabbit.

Dictionary "KP"Stem cells are so-called progenitor cells.
They can turn into cells of any human organs and tissues. There are a lot of stem cells in newborns, with age their number in the body decreases. Unlike other cells, they can divide indefinitely.
There are embryonic stem cells (they are isolated from embryos at a very early stage, when there are no tissues or organs yet) and regional (isolated from the organs of adults and embryos at later stages).

Call to a lawyer
"It's like black magic"

– In Russia, licenses are really issued only for sampling, storage and clinical trials using stem cells, – says Alexander SAVERSKY, head of the Patient Protection League. – Several scandals were connected with this type of treatment, which were later hushed up. For example, we were approached by a girl whose hair was restored with stem cells. For a lot of money, of course. As a result, her hair was never restored. Most often in such situations, the patient has no idea at all what exactly is being injected into his body.

There is another facet of the issue – ethical. In the late 90s, several hundred frozen corpses were found in one large medical institution - this is what some call "abortive material" for growing stem cells. Think about it. Using human tissue, especially children, to treat another person's problems– isn't that black magic?

Expert opinion"There is no proven effect.
And oncology is possible"

– Stem cells are a Russian brainchild, – says a specialist of evidence-based medicine, head of the Department of Hematology and Geriatrics of the Medical Academy. Sechenova, MD Pavel VOROBYOV. – They were "invented" at the beginning of the XX century by Professor Maximov. Since the 70s, stem cells have been used to treat leukemia - the so–called bone marrow transplantation. But this is science.

Then speculation begins: stem cells are attributed non-existent properties. The main thing is to convince potential customers to spend money. Everything is good: to rejuvenate, to purify, to build up the brain or heart. This all sounds especially cynical when "treating" severe patients, for example, with multiple sclerosis.

There is no real evidence of the effectiveness of stem cells! The license is issued only for their fence. (For example, from the umbilical cord of newborns, it costs about 80 thousand rubles in the same center. – Author's note) They have been stored for 13 years. If suddenly during this time the child has acute leukemia, he can be transplanted. But leukemia happens in one out of 100 thousand children.

Everything else is experiments.

But the data that such "transplants" cause tumors did not appear yesterday. They talk about it reluctantly, articles on an inconvenient topic are published mainly in the West.

And, unfortunately, not only here – all over the world this method is underground and semi-underground. Statistics are not kept, so scientific processing of the results is impossible...

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.03.2010