As much as so many were excited yesterday about the enrollment of the first patient in a CIRM-funded clinical trial, I did not see a mention of a very important element.
The patient.
Our excitement about the clinical trial moving forward is understandable, but we also need to keep a sober perspective on the fact that a very real person had a catastrophic spinal cord injury recently. This is a very real person and we need to keep them in our thoughts, perhaps slightly tempering our exuberance about the trial.
Of course, spinal cord injuries in many cases are not something we can prevent and they are going to happen whether there are clinical trials or not so there is good reason for excitement about a trial potentially helping this patient and others in the future.
But let’s keep the patient in mind and remember they are a person going through the toughest experience of their life.
Paul,
Possibly you may already know, but just in case the grapevine hasn’t filtered over the pond yet:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15017664
Moorfields Eye Hospital in London starts a clinical trial for RPE replacement hESC therapy for Stargardts Macular Distrophy which is a juvenile onset retinal (macular) degenerative disease.
As with the US trials, my hopes and prayers for their success.
Regards.
Dave.