For Howe, give Russia the assist
Stroke treatment tied to science with Soviet roots
TIJUANA , MEXICO Ronald Reagan and Gordie Howe once had a memorable conversation about the Soviet Union.
It was in 1982, at the height of the Cold War.
Reagan, the U.S. president, was hosting Howe, Wayne Gretzky and other hockey greats at a luncheon at the White House.
“You know, Gordie, I don’t trust those ... Russians,” Reagan told Howe.
“You know what? Neither do I,” Howe told Reagan.
Gretzky told that story at a dinner honoring Howe in February. But in a strange twist of history, the Russians arguably were the reason Howe was even able to attend it.
Howe suffered a massive stroke in October that left him close to death and largely unable to walk or talk. So he made a desperate move. In December, he traveled here to try a Soviet-style medical experiment.
He received injections of fetal-derived and bone marrow-derived stem cells that were manufactured by Stemedica, a company in San Diego staffed by several Russian and Ukrainian scientists.
Since those treatments, Howe, 87, has been walking and active again, seemingly sprung back to life.
“I think it’s an incredible irony,” said Howe’s son Murray Howe. “I said to my dad after the treatment, ‘Who would have ever thought the Russians, who you used to hate, that they would end up essentially saving your life?’ He got a good chuckle out of that.”
Another stroke victim, former NFL MVP quarterback John Brodie, recently received similar treatment in Moscow, Kazakhstan and Mexico, raising a big question: Why did two North American sports heroes turn to old Soviet science to get their lives back?
The answers have roots that lie behind the old Iron Curtain.
In Stemedica’s office in San Diego, a portrait of a Russian scientist hangs on the wall overlooking the conference table. His name is Alexander Maximov, who around 1908 became one of the early discoverers of “primitive” blood cells that could differentiate into other cell types.
More than 100 years later, Stemedica’s leadership team is populated with Russians and Ukrainians, including its chief technology officer, chief medical officer, chief regulatory officer and vice president of global research.
The company even published a book in 2011, The Miracle of Stem Cells, that explains the promise of this regenerative medicine and its long Russian tradition.
As the story goes, Russia experimented with stem cell technology to help protect its people from a potential American nuclear attack. The idea was it could help combat radiation poisoning, a field of research that progressed in Russia because of its nuclear disasters, including Chernobyl in 1986.
“From a medical standpoint, they had more comfort with it, because of the nuclear disasters,” said Dave McGuigan, Stemedica’s vice president of marketing and business development. “They did a lot of trial and error early on. They had more of a comfort level in using more than one type of cell and in treating complex conditions.”
The book cites evidence that at least two Russian leaders received stem cell treatments: Leonid Brezhnev and Boris Yeltsin. A Russian scientist said Brezhnev’s treatment was produced from bone marrow and was called the “Elixir of Immortality,” according to the book.
‘AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE’
Stemedica says about 50 U.S. patients have been treated with its stem cells in clinical trials in Mexico, where Gordie Howe received his treatment in December. About 80 U.S. patients got them in Kazakhstan, which shares a border with Russia and is a former member of the Soviet Union. Another 35 received them in U.S. clinical trials.
Brodie, 79, received his first stem cell treatment in Moscow in 2006 after suffering a stroke in 2000.
“It was just an incredible expe- rience, because the people over there have been using it for many years with great success,” said Brodie’s wife, Sue.
More recently, Brodie, 79, went to Kazakhstan and Tijuana to receive stem cells that also were manufactured by Stemedica in San Diego and sold to licensed clinics there.
Brodie works out regularly with a personal trainer and can walk, climb stairs, golf and speak several words at a time. After his stroke, he barely could walk or talk.
The families of both former athletes think the stem cell treatments played a big role in their recoveries, though there could be other reasons for it, including natural healing.
“Hey, really good!” Brodie said about his condition recently after being visited by USA TODAY Sports.
Much is still unknown about these products, however. Most stem cell products being tested around the world haven’t been approved for use in the U.S., including the types received by Howe and Brodie.
“People should be skeptical of the stem cell treatments being marketed and sold here in the United States and elsewhere,” said Michelle Quivey, senior communications manager for the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
Stemedica is trying to advance its products through clinical trials in different countries with the hope of having them approved for wider use worldwide. It’s also more cost-effective for its products to be tested in these countries, where it can cost less than half of what clinical trials might ring up in the U.S. at more than $100,000 a patient.
TWO CELLS BETTER THAN ONE
Howe and Brodie received experimental treatments involving two types of stem cells — mesenchymal and neural stem cells. Such a two-cell combination treatment is not available in U.S. clinical trials, though Stemedica said it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration to have it tested in the U.S.
In Kazakhstan, this two-cell combination has been tested for several years.
“We learned from the Russians, who have been at this for more than four decades,” McGuigan said. “Their belief is that when you’re treating a complex condition — like a neurological condition, vascular damage and neurological damage — using more than one type of stem cell makes sense.”
Howe believes it, too, marking a dramatic change of mind for him since 1982. Murray Howe, a doctor, said his father “hated Russian hockey players with a passion.”
“He felt they were dirty and that they were whiners and would stab you in the back, but of course now he would say the Russians are incredible hockey players,” Murray Howe said. “His attitude has obviously softened to them.”
Gordie Howe plans to return here for more stem cells in June.
“We as a global community need to tip our hats to the Russian scientists,” Murray Howe said. “They have really made some amazing strides. Ironically, they made those strides out of fear of our nation.”