Tecnologico de Monterrey Stem Cell Treatment
Highlights of our Visits to Tecnologico de Monterrey
March - June - August - November 2009
Monterrey, Mexico is a beautiful city. More importantly, it houses one of the most prestigious facilities in the world – Tecnologico de Monterrey which includes the School of Medicine, Health Sciences Division and Hospital San Jose– all of which are state-of-the-art and totally impressive. Further, the intelligence, integrity, ethical standards and dedication to the ALS community exhibited by each and every one of the physicians with whom we met were outstanding. These included the Dean of the School of Medicine, Dean of the Health Sciences Division, Medical Director of Hospital San Jose, Chief of Neurosurgery, Chairman of Stem Cell Therapy, Chairman of ALS Stem Cell Transplant program and Chief of Neuroradiology, International Patient Director and several others.
Dr. Schafer, Steve and Barbara have now visited Tecnologico de Monterrey on four separate occasions this year. March 25 – 29,
June 6 – 14, August 3 – 11 and November 4 - 12. Each time we continue to be impressed with the quality of the facility, the impeccable research efforts behind the protocol and the high standards of Tecnologico de Monterrey towards maintaining their institutional, procedural, medical and ethical standards. We maintain that the original conclusion reached is the correct one – that the procedure should be pursued by those with ALS who are accepted into the program in accordance with the criteria established by Tec de Monterrey.
PROCEDURE
The procedure involves the extraction of peripheral blood through apheresis, laboratory cultivation of blood to extract purified autologous CD133 (+) stem cells from each patient and the reinsertion of the purified CD133 stem cells into both frontal cortexes of the brain while under local anesthetic in sterile operating theatre conditions.
A clinical test study was conducted in two phases over a two year period on 29 patients with definite ALS who were accepted under strict criteria for both inclusion and exclusion. All patients have been studied at regular intervals since their respective procedures and results for all surviving patients have shown increase from anticipated life span and improvement in quality of life (QOL). Three patients of the 29 total died between months three and six, including two with prior coronary disease and one with severe, long-term insufficiency prior to the procedure. 26 of the 29 patients are alive at this time.
The medical staff of Tecnologico de Monterrey has expanded the procedure to include patients beyond Mexican nationals and to allow two patient categories from now on: Group A, those within the clinical test study parameters; and Group B, those within the compassionate care parameters, either by physical condition or through patient request
While there’s no way of knowing precisely how long it will take for Tecnologico de Monterrey Patient Admittance Committee to decide on the acceptability of each application, submissions are open. Any ALS patient wishing to be included in the program under either Group A or Group B should contact ALS WORLDWIDE for further information or Tecnologico de Monterrey directly. Additional information is available at the links below.
Clinical Test Study Tecnologico de Monterrey
Tecnologico de Monterrey Stem Cell Treatment Information
