Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Historic floods kill 83, leaving Brazil and its president shaken, angry

Missing surfers from U.S., Australia confirmed dead by Mexico

We reported for months on changes sweeping Russia. Here’s what we found.  

How did we end up with a Biden-Trump matchup again?

Under Putin, a militarized new Russia rises to challenge U.S. and the West 

Noem explains inclusion of story about shooting pet dog

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

Russia is using toxic chemical weapons, wrecking a ban it helped create

There’s still time for Congress to Trump-proof the Insurrection Act 

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

Improper ‘shadow’ ads thriving on Facebook during India’s election

Bosses mandated them back to the office. They took legal action instead.

Election 2024 latest news: After big weekend in Palm Beach, Trump returns to N.Y. courtroom

How TikTok changed fashion

Book excerpt: The admiral who had a mental breakdown over Fat Leonard

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers

Eddie Rosario and Co. lead the Nats to an MLB-best 12th comeback win

CJ Abrams keeps getting better. It’s time to think about an extension.

Sloppy first inning dooms the Nationals in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays

Trump’s vice presidential supplicants toe the line on election fraud

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

Carolyn Hax: Sisters were close — then one accused the other’s husband of abuse

Miss Manners: I’m bothered by a fellow guest not touching their dessert

Ask Amy: My estranged wife is telling my son I’m an adulterer

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Kim Godwin steps down suddenly as president of ABC News

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

WAUKESHA, WI - MAY 1st: Former president Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Wednesday May 1st, 2024.  (Photo by Sara Stathas for the Washington Post)

For years, American "stem-cell tourists" have flocked to unregulated clinics in Mexico, the Caribbean and China in search of everything from heart treatments to facelifts. But now, these kinds of clinics are popping up across the United States.

According to a new study, at least 351 companies with 570 clinics are marketing unapproved treatments for conditions such as osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's, autism and injured spinal cords, as well as for cosmetic enhancements.

"In almost every state now, people can go locally to get stem-cell 'treatments,' " said Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell scientist at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study, published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell. "That's different from what we typically think about when we think of stem-cell tourism."

Knoepfler and his co-author, Leigh Turner, associate professor at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, didn't accuse the clinics of operating illegally but called on federal officials to step up their oversight. "What worries us is the possibility of serious harm to patients," Turner said.

Stem cells are a source of keen interest because they can be coaxed into becoming almost any type of cell and thus might offer remedies for many medical problems. But they also carry risk: They can form tumors and migrate to parts of the body where they don't belong.

For the study, the researchers scoured the Internet for businesses engaged in direct-to-consumer marketing of stem-cell procedures. Many of the clinics were in California (113), Florida (104) and Texas (71). Certain cities, including Beverly Hills, New York and San Antonio, were "hot spots." Almost two-thirds of the businesses offered procedures involving stem cells derived from a patient's own fat; almost half performed treatments using bone marrow.


<i>
    [Stanford researchers 'stunned' by stem-cell treatment effect on stroke patients]
  </i>


The Food and Drug Administration has approved only a few stem-cell treatments. In the vast majority of cases, the procedures being conducted in the clinics are not approved, are outside clinical trials and can cost patients thousands of dollars.

The new analysis comes as the debate over regulating stem-cell clinics is intensifying. While some critics say the FDA should crack down on the industry, others say the clinics shouldn't face new restrictions because what they are doing is part of the "practice of medicine."

Michael Werner, executive director of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, which represents companies, patient advocates and researchers, said his group thinks FDA oversight is critical. He said "the proliferation of the so-called stem-cell clinics is potentially harmful because the treatments may not undergo, or have not undergone, the appropriate scientific rigor that takes place in evaluating new technologies and new medical treatments."

But Marc Scheineson, a former top FDA official who advises the Bipartisan Policy Center on medical innovation, said the current FDA regulatory regime is "archaic" and is stifling medical innovation.

Some Republicans in Congress are pushing a bill that would allow the FDA to approve stem-cell treatments for five years without advanced clinical trials.

As the issue heats up, the FDA has scheduled two public meetings in September to get public comment on draft guidance language on stem cells.

In a statement, the agency said, "In theory, stem cells may advance the treatment of many other diseases or conditions; however, at this time, the value of stem cells as a treatment for most conditions is largely unproven and more information is needed about their potential benefits."

The agency added that it is "concerned that the hope patients have for treatments not yet proven to be safe and effective may leave them vulnerable to unscrupulous providers of stem cell treatments that are illegal and potentially harmful."

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/06/29/the-worlds-smartest-computer-will-help-treat-10000-veterans-with-cancer/">Biden urges researchers to report results</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/06/21/federal-panel-approves-first-test-of-crispr-editing-in-humans/">Panel okays first CRISPR editing in humans </a>

Part of Wall Street Journal team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting on AIDS 

Syracuse University, BS in journalism

Laurie McGinley covers health and medicine for The Washington Post. She focuses on the Food and Drug Administration as well as cancer research and treatment. She was previously The Post's health, science and environment editor. 

Laurie McGinley

The Washington Post

Health Care

Medical Mysteries

Science

Well+Being

Health

prism://prism.query/site,/health&limit=20

The Washington Post health section provides coverage and analysis of health, healthcare, nutrition and fitness news.