In the UK, a clinical trial aims to test the use of a stem cell transplant for patients with Crohn’s disease.
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. It usually appears around adolescence and patients suffer from diarrhea, abdominal pain and fatigue.
Current treatments, based on steroids, aim to reduce this inflammation. However, these therapies do not work for all patients and most have side effects. In many cases, treatments are not sufficient and surgery is considered.
To address this lack of effective treatment, clinical trials have started in the UK to find alternatives.
Patients will first receive immunosuppressive medications and growth factors to stimulate bone marrow stem cell divisions. Then patients will take the treatment intended to destroy the old immune system. Then the stem cells will be grafted to restore a new immune system. The results of this test are not expected until 2022.
