Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 25;7(1):20.
doi: 10.1038/s41536-022-00215-w.

Patients seeking stem cell therapies-a prospective qualitative analysis from a Regenerative Medicine Consult Service

Jennifer R Arthurs  1 , Lisa M Nordan  2 , Brian H Hultgren  1 , Michael G Heckman  3 , Dayana Martinez  4   1 , Zubin Master #  5 , Shane A Shapiro #  6
Affiliations

Patients seeking stem cell therapies-a prospective qualitative analysis from a Regenerative Medicine Consult Service

Jennifer R Arthurs et al. NPJ Regen Med. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Despite patient demand for stem cell therapies (SCTs) for musculoskeletal conditions, there remains limited research on why patients seek SCTs or their sources of information. We employ three questions into a consult intake form: (1) Why are you interested in stem cell treatment for your condition? (2) How did you find out about stem cell treatment for your condition? (3) Have you contacted a stem cell clinic? Responses analyzed, using a qualitative content analysis approach to identify themes reveal many patients seek SCTs to treat pain or delay surgery which may align with some current clinical evidence while other patients express motivations as expected outcomes (e.g., SCTs are better than standard of care or can regenerate tissue) which are not supported by current medical evidence. These differences suggests that patient-centered counseling may help patients by addressing misconceptions and increasing health literacy about expected outcomes of SCTs for treating musculoskeletal conditions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Werner BC, Cancienne JM, Browning R, Verma NN, Cole BJ. An analysis of current treatment trends in platelet-rich plasma therapy in the medicare database. Orthop. J. Sports Med. 2020;8:2325967119900811. doi: 10.1177/2325967119900811. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hernigou P, et al. Unusual indication of cell therapy for hip osteonecrosis after pregnancy. SICOT J. 2018;4:46. doi: 10.1051/sicotj/2018044. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Houdek MT. CORR insights(R): do early results of proximal humeral allograft-prosthetic composite reconstructions persist at 5-year followup? Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res. 2019;477:766–767. doi: 10.1097/CORR.0000000000000417. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gobbi A, Whyte GP. Long-term clinical outcomes of one-stage cartilage repair in the knee with hyaluronic acid-based scaffold embedded with mesenchymal stem cells sourced from bone marrow aspirate concentrate. Am. J. Sports Med. 2019;47:1621–1628. doi: 10.1177/0363546519845362. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hawke B, et al. How to peddle hope: an analysis of youtube patient testimonials of unproven stem cell treatments. Stem Cell Rep. 2019;12:1186–1189. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2019.05.009. - DOI - PMC - PubMed