Cardiac Cell Therapy: Are There Easier Ways to Restore Function? Probably

The first ever controlled clinical trials of cardiac cell therapies have yielded only equivocal results: some showed marginal success, others either disappointed or failed outright. A provocative discussion among thought leaders at the October 2006 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in Washington, DC, reinforced the notion that too little is known about which cell types, doses, and administration routes are most feasible in order to usefully proceed with large-scale studies. A few experts went so far as to suggest eschewing this difficult therapy entirely, in favor of small-molecule or device-oriented approaches to restoring contractile function in the heart—the goal of treatment.

The results of two European trials were most troubling. Previously reported early results from the randomized BOOST study at the...