China Offers Unproven Medical Treatments

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Paralyzed after a diving accident almost a year ago, 15-year-old Celine Lyon receiving treatment at the Tiantan Puhua Hospital in Beijing, China, Thursday, May 24, 2007. Tiantan Puhua, a joint venture between Asia's largest neurological hospital and American Pacific Medical Group, specialize in using stem cells injections to treat diseases ranging from stroke and spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy and ataxia. Since opening its treatment to foreigners last year, the hospital has been attracting increasing interest from overseas patients, the latest breed of medical tourists. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)

Kazakstan's Serik Ananchiev, 27, right receiving treatment at the Tiantan Puhua Hospital in Beijing, China, Thursday, May 24, 2007. Tiantan Puhua, a joint venture between Asia's largest neurological hospital and American Pacific Medical Group, specialize in using stem cells injections to treat diseases ranging from stroke and spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy and ataxia. Since opening its treatment to foreigners last year, the hospital has been attracting increasing interest from overseas patients, the latest breed of medical tourists.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)

Kazakstan's Serik Ananchiev, 27, left paralysed in a car accident and Zhao Jionghao, 2 at right receiving treatment at the Tiantan Puhua Hospital in Beijing, China, Thursday, May 24, 2007. Tiantan Puhua, a joint venture between Asia's largest neurological hospital and American Pacific Medical Group, specializes in using stem cells injections to treat diseases ranging from stroke and spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy and ataxia. Since opening its treatment to foreigners last year, the hospital has been attracting increasing interest from overseas patients, the latest breed of medical tourists.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)

Angela Im at right looks over as her husband, William T. Gillespie , left talks about her treatment to repair damage to her brain stem caused initially by lupus at the Tiantan Puhua Hospital in Beijing, China, Thursday, May 24, 2007. Tiantan Puhua, a joint venture between Asia's largest neurological hospital and American Pacific Medical Group, specializes in using stem cells injections to treat diseases ranging from stroke and spinal cord injuries to cerebral palsy and ataxia. Since opening its treatment to foreigners last year, the hospital has been attracting increasing interest from overseas patients, the latest breed of medical tourists.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)

Chris Hrabik, 21, works on his customized 1993 Nissan 240SX as his wheelchair sits near by Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007, in Oak Ridge, Mo. More than a year after his return from China where he received stem cell therapy, Hrabik says he has nearly complete use of his left hand and improvement in the right, reversing paralysis caused by a car accident near his 18th birthday. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) (Jeff Roberson - AP)

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"It's one of the only games in town," said Savage, 44, a lawyer who suffered severe spinal cord injuries after a canoe trip 25 years ago.

Savage spent 2 1/2 months in late 2006 and early 2007 at a hospital in the southern China city of Shenzhen to get what he was told were stem cell injections in his spine from umbilical cord blood. He made the arrangements through Beike Biotechnology Co., which offers the treatments at a number of hospitals in China.

Afterward, Savage said he was able to move his right arm for the first time since his diving accident; a video made at the hospital appears to show slight movement. He also said he noticed greater strength in his abdomen and more sensation on his skin.

Just how many foreigners like Savage are coming to China for treatment isn't known; and China is only one of several countries where such techniques are being offered.

Many Chinese doctors don't wait for results of rigorous testing before treating patients and they offer what they say are stem cell or other cell treatments to those willing to pay.

What is known about the procedures being performed comes from material on their Web sites or from patients who give detailed accounts of their visits. Little has been published in scientific journals for other doctors to scrutinize.

The use of stem cells for treatments isn't new. For decades, doctors around the world have been using adult stem cells from blood and bone marrow _ and more recently from umbilical cord blood _ to treat cancers of the blood like leukemia and lymphoma and blood diseases like sickle cell anemia.

Scientists have been exploring whether such adult stem cells and other cells such as those from the retina or fetal brain tissue could be used to replace cells lost because of injury or disease. And they are trying to figure out if there's a way to stimulate the body's own stem cells to make repairs.

But those strategies are still being investigated in the lab in animals; there have been very limited tests in people.

Whether any clinics in China are using the more controversial embryonic stem cells _ doctors in some other countries claim to be _ isn't clear. These stem cells are taken from days-old embryos. They can develop into all types of cells, but research into their usefulness is in early stages.

Patients seek out these unproven treatments after hearing about them from other patients, patient groups or Web sites for the medical companies. The patients' stories posted on the Internet usually tell of some kind of improvement from the treatments _ slight movements in arms or legs, fewer spasms or tremors, a feeling of sensation, an ability to sweat.

Chris Hrabik, 21, has been disabled since a 2004 car crash left him with limited use of his hands and legs. His father took out a second mortgage on their Oak Ridge, Mo., home to help pay for $20,000 worth of stem cell injections at a Beike facility in China.