Scientific world may soon offer a solution for millions of people suffering from type 1 diabetes who need insulin shots on daily basis. Apparently, stem cell transplant in their case can do miracles. In other words, these people can go as long as four years in the luckiest cases without insulin shots after such a transplant, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study showed that 12 of 23 patients remained continuously free from insulin injections for an average of 31 months. One of them was insulin free for more than four years, for were insulin free for at least three years, three went without insulin shots for at least two years and four went without insulin treatment for at least one year.
Eight other patients had to start taking insulin again at lower levels.
“I think people will have to judge for themselves if the potential risks of this treatment outweigh the long-term risks associated with type 1 diabetes progression,” study co-author Richard Burt, MD, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said. “This is the first time in the treatment of diabetes that after one intervention patients no longer required any therapy,” Burt says. “And now we have many years of follow-up.”
The researchers now plan to conduct a larger trial to confirm the effectiveness of the treatment in newly diagnosed patients who are still producing some insulin on their own.
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