Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Over the last 50 years, viral infections have replaced bacterial and parasitic infections as pathogenic organisms causing disease and ultimately death in humans around the world. There are certain areas in the world where Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is endemic, like in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Hepatitis C is usually a slowly progressing infection which leads to the destruction of the liver (cirrhosis) and liver cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma, or HCC). When clinical progression occurs, patients’ condition slowly worsens with chronic fatigue, general malaise and weight loss. Also, Diabetes mellitus is a common complication. Unfortunately, most commonly chronic HCV ends in a terminal stage of liver cirrhosis and HCC is then common. For end-stage liver cirrhosis, the usual treatment till now was partial or complete liver transplantation. This operation is very expensive and has a high morbidity and mortality, and if successful, it will extend the patient’s life expectancy only with a few years, as also the new liver will be infected with HCV, and affected.

Over the last few years, at Medical Center Cologne clinics, quite a few patients with advanced and end-stage liver cirrhosis have been treated successfully with their own dendritic cells and specially selected, omnipotent stem cells. Quite a few patients who were on a waiting list for liver transplantation and treated at Medical Center Cologne clinics are now no longer in need of that transplantation and live a full life again.

Since the successful treatment at Medical Center Cologne clinics is conducted with patients’ own cells, the treatment is very safe and only mild side effects, if any, have been documented. Also, at Medical Center Cologne clinics, no embryonic stem cells are ever being used; only patients’ own stem cells from one’s own bone marrow are being applied. Therefore, there are also no ethical objections to the therapy (killing of embryos for treatment). Also, embryonic stem cells bear a risk of malignant degeneration leading to aggressive germ cell carcinomas.

Thus, in conclusion, progressed and end-stage cases of HCV infection (with HCC) are safely and successfully treated with patients’ own immune cells and specially selected stem cells at the Medical Center Cologne clinics.