Yahoo – AFP,
Marlowe HOOD, March 25, 2017
Paris (AFP) - Men unable to have an erection after prostate surgery enjoyed normal intercourse thanks to stem cell therapy, scientists are to report Saturday at a medical conference in London.
New studies offer hope that stem cell therapy could help men unable to have an erection after prostate surgery to enjoy a normal sex life (AFP Photo/ ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT) |
Paris (AFP) - Men unable to have an erection after prostate surgery enjoyed normal intercourse thanks to stem cell therapy, scientists are to report Saturday at a medical conference in London.
In
first-phase clinical trials, eight out of 15 continent men suffering from
erectile dysfunction had sex six months after the one-time treatment, without
recourse to drugs or penile implants.
The
positive result showed no signs of flagging during a subsequent year-long
monitoring period.
"As
far as we know, this is the first time that a human study with a 12-month
follow up shows that the treatment is lasting and safe," said Lars Lund, a
professor at Odense University Hospital in Denmark who took part in the trials.
"That
is much better than taking a pill every time you want to have
intercourse," he told AFP.
The results
were promising enough to convince Danish health authorities to authorise
so-called phase III "double-blind" randomised trials in which one
group of men is given stem cell therapy and another placebos.
Only men
recovering from prostate cancer and able to control their bladders will be
enrolled in the new experiments, Lund explained by phone.
All-purpose stem cells
To perform
the procedure, doctors remove fat cells from a patient's abdomen via
liposuction.
The cells
undergo a brief treatment and emerge as all-purpose stem cells, meaning they
can mutate into almost any specialised cell in the body.
"We do
not cultivate the cells or change them in any way," said Lund's colleague
Martha Haahr, head researcher and lead author of a study detailing preliminary
results, published last year in EBioMedicine.
The stem
cells are then injected with a syringe into the penis, where they spontaneously
begin to change in to nerve and muscle cells, as well as the endothelial cells
that line blood vessels.
Men are
under general anaesthesia while all of this happens, and are discharged from
hospital the same day.
Prostate
surgery is responsible for about 13 percent of erectile dysfunction cases. Up
to 80 percent of men experience difficulty having sex immediately after an
operation, previous research has shown.
Diabetes
accounts for 40 percent of erectile dysfunction cases, and vascular disease
another 30 percent.
Men with
diabetes would be the next target group for clinical trials, Lund said.
The results
reported at the European Association of Urology conference could be an
effective "therapeutic option for patients suffering erectile dysfunction
from other causes," Haahr said.
It is
estimated that nearly half of men between the ages of 40 and 70 experience
erectile dysfunction to some degree.
The global
market for drugs treating the disorder is expected to top $3.4 billion (3.15
billion euros) by 2019.
Failure to
perform sexually can also, in some men, result from relationship problems,
performance anxiety or repressed homosexuality, Haahr said.
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