This view has been expressed in particular in the USA, where there is concern that some centres are moving to clinical trial without good experimental basis, without proper preparation, and without proper design and assessment. The purpose of the HSG position statement is to set a standard. They conclude that a legitimate clinical trial must recognise that any new treatment is experimental and so it requires fully informed consent, it must have a clear foundation in solid animal research, and it must be conducted as a properly designed trial so that we can truly learn from the results - from negative as well as positive outcomes. The Cambridge transplantation team is in full agreement with the HSG position statement, and our programme complies in full with the guidelines proposed. We are working together to pool 25 years experimental and 15 years clinical experience of neural transplantation from all the main centres throughout Europe.
Neural transplantation is still an experimental procedure.
All aspects of our prospective clinical trials are developed, assessed and further refined first in tissue culture and then in experimental animals before being considered in patients. These results are peer-reviewed and published in top scientific journals. Secondly we will require brain scans as well as functional tests both before and after surgery to assess graft survival directly. It is only on the basis of such detailed and well validated tests that we can truly discover whether the novel treatments for which some of you may be asked to contribute is indeed safe and effective, as we hope, but cannot yet prove. Of course, the cost of taking this amount of care is that it can sometimes seem to take a very long time until we are ready to progress to the next stage.