Safeguarding patients against stem cell tourism.

The globalisation of health care1 has exposed patients to novel treatments they may never have previously encountered, such as stem cell therapy. The practice is for the most part illegal in the UK, but the proliferation of stem cell clinics in countries such as India, China, Mexico, and Germany, and their subsequent marketing efforts has attracted ‘stem cell tourists’ — patients in search of a cure for their illness. The lack of clinical evidence to support stem cell therapy puts patients at risk of receiving at best ineffective,2 and at worst unsafe or even harmful treatments,3 raising calls for a campaign to raise awareness and educate patients about these dangers. This issue has recently become urgent. Media frenzy surrounding the case of Dr Trossel and his dismissal following his controversial advice, and offer of unregulated stem cell treatment to a multiple sclerosis patient,4 led the General Medical Council (GMC) to conclude he had breached medical practice by ‘exploiting vulnerable patients’. It has been reported that nine patients were involved in the case, and that Dr Trossel allegedly injected a substance containing stem cells into at least five of them in his Rotterdam clinic. Large sums of money, of at least £10 000 per patient, had been forwarded to him in advance of the treatment. Following some investigation, it is doubted whether the substance used contained any form of stem cells at all. The GMC's stance is that this …