Lana Cristina
Reporter - Agência Brasil
Brasília - Brazil will undertake the world's biggest study yet, in terms of the number of cases and institutions involved, of the use of mature stem cells to treat heart disease. Nearly 40 medical and research institutions will be evaluating 1,200 patients who suffer from cardiac disorders. The research already underway in the country to discover an effective treatment for Chagas' disease is unprecedented in the world.
The Minister of Health, Humberto Costa, announced the inception of the study, yesterday (2), at a ceremony in the Laranjeiras National Institute of Cardiology (INCL), in Rio de Janeiro. The project, known as the Multicenter Randomized Study of Cell Therapy in Heart Disease Patients, will command resources on the order of US$ 4.6 millions, already earmarked in the Ministry of Health's budget.
The goal is to substitute traditional heart treatments - which range from medication to surgery and even transplants - with stem cell therapy. For several years these cells have been studied as cures for various diseases, including degenerative ones, such as Alzheimer's disease. Stem cells, found in abundance in embryos and, in smaller quantities, in more mature cell tissues, such as umbilical cords and bone marrow, are the matrices which give rise to the cells of specific organs, such as neurons, heart muscle, liver, skin, etc.
According to the Minister, the government decided to invest in cell therapy, because it is a technique that has shown promising results all over the world and offers a less invasive form of treatment, involving simpler surgical procedures and shorter periods of hospitalization.
The research will last for three years, and, during this period, half the patients will receive traditional treatment, employing the best pharmacological and surgical resources available. The other half will be submitted to cell therapy. The aim is to demonstrate the efficiency of this technique - confirmed in isolated studies in Brazil - in order to adopt it as a form of treatment. At present, two institutions already conduct research in this area: the Pro-Cardiac Hospital in Rio de Janeiro and the Heart Institute (InCor) at the University of São Paulo (USP).
Four million people in Brazil are victims of chronic cardiac insufficiency. If, at the end of the study, the efficiency of stem cells for the recovery of cardiac capacity is validated, as preliminary studies suggest, it is estimated that 200 thousand lives will be saved in three years.
Translation: David Silberstein
