Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

Life expectancy for people with spinal cord injury has shown a marked increase due to modern advances in treatment methods and in neuro-urology. However, since life expectancy of people with paralysis increases, the risk of developing of urinary bladder cancer is gaining importance. Single-centre retrospective evaluation of patient data with spinal cord injuries and proven urinary bladder cancer and summary of the literature. Between 1998 and 2014, 24 (3 female, 21 male) out of a total of 6599 patients with spinal cord injury were diagnosed with bladder cancer. The average age at bladder cancer diagnosis was 57.67years, which is well below the average for bladder cancer cases in the general population (male: 73, female: 77). All but one patient had a latency period between the onset of the spinal paralysis and tumour diagnosis of more than 10years. The median latency was 29.83years. The median survival for these patients was 11.5months. Of the 24 patients, 19 (79%) had muscle invasive bladder cancer at T2 at the time of diagnosis. The type of neurogenic bladder (neurogenic detrusor overactivity or acontractility) and the form of bladder drainage do not appear to influence the risk. Long-term indwelling catheter drainage played only a minor role … Continue reading →

Crain's Cleveland Business Zubizarreta House is big step for spinal cord treatments Crain's Cleveland Business From his office on MetroHealth's Old Brooklyn campus, Kilgore, a biomedical engineer and researcher at MetroHealth, has watched construction progress on the Zubizarreta House, a home for patients with spinal cord injuries to stay while receiving ... Read the original post: Zubizarreta House is big step for spinal cord treatments - Crain's Cleveland Business … Continue reading →

Share this story with your network CAMBRIDGE, Mass.(BUSINESS WIRE)InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV)today announced that Health Canada has approved the companys Investigational Testing Authorization application to commence a clinical study of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold in patients with acute, complete (AIS A) cervical (C5-T1) spinal cord injuries (SCIs). InVivo currently is in late stage conversation with several site Research Ethics Boards and expects to announce its first Canadian site in the coming weeks. This approval is an important step towards our goal of redefining the life of the spinal cord injury patient, said Mark Perrin, InVivos CEO and Chairman. We are dedicated to helping as many SCI patients as we can, and this approval helps us to evaluate our investigational product in the most severe spinal cord injury cases, with neurologically complete cervical injuries involving impairment of the arms, hands, trunk, and legs. As I explain further in my CEOs Perspective, moving into the cervical spinal cord is exciting, since each level of the cervical spinal cord has a substantial functional impact. If the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold were able to preserve, remyelinate and/or regenerate just a small area of spinal cord, we believe this could have significant functional consequences. We look forward … Continue reading →

New Rochelle, NY A Phase I clinical trial that targeted individuals with new onset paraplegia to evaluate the safety of transplanting their own potentially neuroprotective Schwann cells into a trauma-induced spinal cord lesion showed no evidence of adverse effects after 1 year. This novel cell therapy approach for treating subacute thoracic spinal cord injury is described in an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website until April 22, 2017. Kim Anderson, PhD, Allan Levi, MD, PhD, and coauthors from University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Bruce W. Carter Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Miami, FL) describe the design and results of the clinical trial in which they harvested Schwann cells from a nerve of each paralyzed patient, cultured them in the laboratory, and then injected them directly into the site of the spinal cord lesion within 72 days of injury. In the article entitled Safety of Autologous Human Schwann Cell Transplantation in Subacute Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury the authors present the results obtained from three different doses of Schwann cells and report no negative effects related to harvesting or … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV)today announced that Health Canada has approved the companys Investigational Testing Authorization application to commence a clinical study of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold in patients with acute, complete (AIS A) cervical (C5-T1) spinal cord injuries (SCIs). InVivo currently is in late stage conversation with several site Research Ethics Boards and expects to announce its first Canadian site in the coming weeks. This approval is an important step towards our goal of redefining the life of the spinal cord injury patient, said Mark Perrin, InVivos CEO and Chairman. We are dedicated to helping as many SCI patients as we can, and this approval helps us to evaluate our investigational product in the most severe spinal cord injury cases, with neurologically complete cervical injuries involving impairment of the arms, hands, trunk, and legs. As I explain further in my CEOs Perspective, moving into the cervical spinal cord is exciting, since each level of the cervical spinal cord has a substantial functional impact. If the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold were able to preserve, remyelinate and/or regenerate just a small area of spinal cord, we believe this could have significant functional consequences. We look forward to bringing sites onboard in Canada … Continue reading →

Updated May 2016 According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, as many as 450,000 people in the U.S. are living with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Other organizations conservatively estimate this figure to be about 250,000. Every year, an estimated 11,000 SCIs occur in the U.S. Most of these are caused by trauma to the vertebral column, thereby affecting the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the body's systems that control sensory, motor and autonomic function below the level of injury. According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), SCI costs the nation an estimated $9.7 billion each year. Pressure sores alone, a common secondary condition among people with SCI, cost an estimated $1.2 billion. Incidence The Spinal Column/Cord The spinal cord is about 18 inches long, extending from the base of the brain to near the waist. Many of the bundles of nerve fibers that make up the spinal cord itself contain upper motor neurons (UMNs). Spinal nerves that branch off the spinal cord at regular intervals in the neck and back contain lower motor neurons (LMNs). The spine itself is divided into four sections, not including the tailbone: Cervical … Continue reading →

Spinal cord injuries are among the most dramatic and devastating of all injuries, in part because they stem from traumatic accidents but also because there are very few treatment options. While medical advances have been made in the areas of injury management and improved long-term functioning, for those dealing with spinal cord injuries the sad truth is that researchers have yet to come up with a cure for paralysis. Victims of spinal cord injuries are left facing a lifelong disability, one that comes not only with a range of personal burdens but which also extracts its toll on the healthcare system studies have shown that the lifetime economic burden of spinal cord injuries in Canada ranges between $1.5 to $3.0 million per individual. Yet cell therapies represent one area of current research that appears likely to deliver positive results. According to a new study from researchers with the University Health Network and the University of Toronto, the neuroregenerative potential of this approach is promising. Cell therapy, which in general refers to any procedure involving the implantation of cells, comes in different guises in spinal cord research, depending on the type of cells employed. Clinical research is already being performed using … Continue reading →

A Texas Criminal Court of Appeals decision stunned brain injury advocates when it ruled last week that a State of Texas dedicated fund, which provides medically-necessary services to Texans with brain and spinal cord injuries, is unconstitutional. The result is a catastrophic loss of funding required to continue a brain injury treatment program. Austin, Texas (PRWEB) March 21, 2017 A Texas Criminal Court of Appeals decision stunned brain injury advocates when it ruled last week that a State of Texas dedicated fund, which provides medically-necessary services to Texans with brain and spinal cord injuries, is unconstitutional. The Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services (CRS) program is administered by the Health & Human Services Commission, and benefits all Texans impacted by brain injury including crime victims and veterans. The Court agreed with the appellant, Orlando Salinas, finding the dedicated fund directing revenue to the CRS program from misdemeanor and felony court costs to be an unlawful tax, and therefore unconstitutional. In a ruling on Wednesday, March 8, the Court ordered districts to stop collections for CRS and one other that offers counseling to abused children within 40 days. This loss of funding is an immediate threat to the CRS program and may result in … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV)today announced that it has submitted its first module containing nonclinical studies to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of its Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) modular submission and review process for the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold. InVivos modular HDE process is based on a submission of three modules to the FDA that constitute a complete HDE submission once all have been submitted: a nonclinical studies module, a manufacturing module, and a clinical data module. This process allows the FDA to review each module separately and provide timely feedback, typically within 90 days of submission, thereby allowing the applicant the opportunity to resolve any deficiencies earlier in the review process compared to a traditional HDE application. The submission of our nonclinical studies module marks the accomplishment of another major milestone for the INSPIRE Study, Mark Perrin, InVivos Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, said. We expect to receive acceptance of the nonclinical module in the third quarter of this year, and plan to submit the manufacturing module in the second half of 2017 and the clinical module in 2018, all as part of our strategy to pursue accelerated approval for the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold. About the … Continue reading →

Thinly traded micro cap Asterias Biotherapeutics (AST +12.4%) perks up on light volume in response to its update on its ongoing SciStar Phase 1/2a clinical trial assessing the 10M-cell dose of AST-OPC1 (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells) in patients with sub-acute C-5 to C-7 cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Data on the sixth and final patient in the AIS-A (complete injury, no motor function below the injury site) 10M cell cohort showed upper extremity motor function improvement at month 3 and further improvement in month 6. The results were consistent with the five previous patients. Upper extremity motor function is the most desirable functional improvement in the quadriplegic population. CEO Steve Cartt says, "These results are quite encouraging, and suggest that there are meaningful improvements in the recovery of functional ability in patients treated with the 10 million cell dose of AST-OPC1 versus spontaneous recovery rates observed in a closely matched untreated patient population. We look forward to reporting additional efficacy and safety data for this cohort, as well as for the currently-enrolling AIS-A 20 million cell and AIS-B 10 million cell cohorts, later this year." Read this article: Asterias Bio's cell therapy continues to demonstrate treatment effect in spinal cord injury … Continue reading →