Rogue Stem cell clinic raided by police

Stem cell tourism – patients paying for treatment at illegal "guerrilla" clinics – continues to be a lucrative racket. Police in Hungary last week arrested four individuals they suspect of running an illegal stem cell treatment clinic in Budapest.

Reuters reported the police saying that the treatments were unproven, based on stem cells taken from embryos or aborted fetuses, and cost as much as $25,000 per person.

Gabor Bucsek, leading the police investigation, was quoted as saying that the arrests were "on suspicion of a banned use of the human body".

The Health Ministry issued a brief statement saying that no institutions in the country have permission at present to carry out stem cell treatment, and only Hungary's Healthcare Scientific Council has authority to issue permission to conduct research. At least eight patients had been treated, although some bloggers report that there may have been as many as 100.

Unproven treatments

Stem cell researchers alarmed by the reports from Hungary praised the police action.

"If the people that have been arrested have done something illegal their arrest is good news," says Robin Lovell-Badge of the National Institute of Medical Research in London.

"I hope it scares others from offering untested treatments and will be a cautionary tale to members of the public," added Lovell-Badge, urging them to consult global guidelines issued last year by the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Stem cell therapy is promising, but there are major hurdles to overcome, not least the risk of the cells causing cancer.

"There's no proven benefit of any of the treatments on offer at commercial clinics, and there's risks of infection, not getting the stem cells at all, or them growing into something you don't want," says Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who runs the Quackwatch website. "So to go for treatment is a very foolish thing to do."