Stem cell treatment is marketed for a very long list of conditions. The evidence behind each is wildly different, and clinics rarely distinguish between them.
This section reviews each condition separately and rates the evidence honestly.
How we rate the evidence
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| Established | Multiple randomised controlled trials or decades of clinical practice. Standard care. |
| Promising | Randomised evidence exists and is encouraging, but questions remain about who benefits. |
| Experimental | Early trials or small studies only. No reliable evidence of benefit over placebo. |
| Unsupported | Widely marketed, but no high-quality evidence of benefit for this use. |
The current picture
| Condition | Evidence rating | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Leukaemia, lymphoma, sickle cell | Established | Haematopoietic transplantation is standard hospital care and FDA approved |
| Aggressive relapsing-remitting MS | Promising | AHSCT outperformed standard therapy in randomised trials; serious hospital procedure |
| Knee osteoarthritis | Experimental | Meta-analysis suggests most benefit is placebo-related; certainty of evidence low |
| Degenerative disc disease | Experimental | Small trials, mixed results |
| Peripheral neuropathy | Experimental | Limited controlled evidence |
| COPD | Unsupported | Widely sold; no high-quality randomised evidence of benefit |
| Autism | Unsupported | No credible evidence; heavily marketed to desperate families |
| Anti-ageing / longevity | Unsupported | No evidence of life extension or biological age reversal in humans |
| Hair loss | Experimental | Early evidence, mostly for related products rather than stem cells |
Read next
- Stem Cell Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis
- Stem Cells vs Knee Replacement: How to Decide
- Stem Cell Therapy for Back Pain and Degenerative Discs
- Stem Cell Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis
- Stem Cell Therapy for COPD
- Stem Cell Therapy for Peripheral Neuropathy
- Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Loss
- Stem Cell Therapy for Anti-Ageing and Longevity
A note on desperate situations
Some of the conditions above have no good treatment options, which is exactly why unproven treatments are marketed for them. If you or someone you love is in that position, we are not telling you what to decide. We are telling you what the evidence says, so the decision is at least an informed one.