"Medical research is constantly advancing the ways that stem cell transplants, in which damaged cells are replaced with healthy ones, can be used to treat disease. This year saw significant advances in the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and
multiple sclerosis (MS).
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Most people know it as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, named after the New York Yankees baseball player diagnosed with it in 1939. The ALS Association estimates that 30,000 Americans have the disease, with roughly 5,600 new cases diagnosed each year.
But the results have been impressive: Only 22 percent of patients in the trial had a return to active disease after three years, as contrasted with 60 to 70 percent who underwent other treatments.
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“The transplant was the hardest experience in my life,” says Feokhari, who developed an infection that nearly killed him. “But however it happened, I turned the corner eventually, and then I went from regretting doing the trial to being very happy I did it.” It is now five years since the transplant, and he has not had any return of active disease."