Did Stem Cell Therapy Repair Bartolo Colon's Broken Pitching Arm?

By Clay Dillow Posted 05.12.2011 at 5:39 pm 13 Comments

Bartolo Colon Cranking Up a Weary Arm With the White Sox in 2009 Keith Allison via Wikimedia

Cy Young-winning pitcher Bartolo Colon is back in a big way this season, having claimed a spot in the New York Yankees starting rotation after not throwing a pitch during the 2010 season following elbow surgery and the usual shoulder problems that accompany a career as a major league fastballer. But controversy is brewing over his bounce-back season, as it has come to light that his shoulder and elbow were last year injected with Colon’s own stem cells.

Stem cell treatments like this are of dubious clinical efficacy but are not banned by Major League Baseball. However, they are part of a growing grey area in professional sports wherein athletes receive questionable treatments that don’t violate the rules outright but may or may not offer them a competitive advantage.

In Colon’s case, the treatment was carried out in the Dominican Republic--not because the treatment is illegal in the States (it’s not) but because Colon lives there--by Dominican doctors and a Florida surgeon named Joseph Purita, whose regenerative medicine clinic has treated several other professional athletes. And though his office does offer human growth hormone (or HGH) treatment, he says he didn’t provide it to Colon or any of the other athletes (HGH treatments would definitely run afoul of Major League rules).

Purita’s procedure involved removing stem cells from Colon’s fat and bone marrow and injecting them into his elbow and shoulder to repair ligament and rotator cuff damage. It’s a procedure that hasn’t been put through rigorous clinical reviews, and other physicians say there’s no conclusive evidence that it works. The MLB, fighting a constant uphill battle to stay current regulating new performance enhancing drugs and supplements, doesn’t even have an official opinion--much less a rule--on such treatments derived from one’s own stem cells. They told the NYT they are looking into Colon’s case.

For his part Colon is 2-1 and throwing like he was years ago, topping 93 miles per hour with regularity. His ERA is a respectable 3.81. And if stats told the whole story, it would be easy enough to deduce that these stem cell therapies have given a 37-year-old pitcher a younger man’s arm.

Whether or not that’s so is up for debate, and surely there will be one. Can someone’s own cells be considered a performance enhancer? Can leagues and athletic bodies effectively test for such therapies? Was it the procedure, or Colon’s season off from the majors, that really repaired his arm; that is, do such therapies even make a difference?

If you’re into baseball, stem cell therapies, or medical controversies click through to the NYT piece below, it’s a good read on an increasingly weighty topic in sports and medicine alike.

[NYT]

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13 Comments

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Siromar

05/12/11 at 6:12 pm

Steroids are illegal because they offer an unfair advantage over those who choose not to endanger their lives and wellbeing by taking such substances. Why would repair of damaged tissue be connected in any way? How is that more unfair that normal treatments and surgeries? You guys.

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yosifcuervo

05/12/11 at 6:42 pm

I see it the other way - steroids cause your existing cells to move into a more powerful, muscular arragement. If the stem cell treatment has truly "given a 37-year-old pitcher a younger man’s arm", then I don't see much difference. And those treatments do sound dangerous to your wellbeing - I doubt that getting stems cells sucked out of your bone marrow is a very pleasant experience.

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Siromar

05/12/11 at 6:45 pm

If the injection of stem cells can reverse the effects of time, then implications for professional sports are the very last thing on my mind. :p

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The_Chairman_of...

05/12/11 at 7:25 pm

Big, Fat, Genetically Enhanced Bartolo Colon...

Mike Young for Colon?

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Don Juan

05/13/11 at 11:09 am

Of course it's the YANKEES out of all teams that get the guy with the crazy futuristic cell repair treatment

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ionutab

05/13/11 at 12:51 pm

good one, I agree.

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Clay Dillow

05/13/11 at 1:28 pm

No deal, Chairman.

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lobosolo

05/13/11 at 8:29 pm

Actually, the FDA shut down a clinic in Colorado offering a similar treatment. I don't know if you can get that treatment in the US.

http://copd.about.com/b/2010/08/08/fda-stops-stem-cell-treatments-in-usa.htm

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razorshades

05/13/11 at 11:16 pm

When the medical people and FDA figure out how they can screw us out of the most money, it will suddenly become ethical to use your own body to heal yourself. I guess hacking his arm apart with conventional surgery would be a much better "solution," according to doctors in this country, rather then having a simple injection at the injury sight.

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LGD

05/13/11 at 11:28 pm

Doesn't "Tommy John" surgery use one's own body parts to fix the problem? Who objects to such a ball player returning to the game?

What if Colon had needed a kidney transplant? It would be from another person, of course. Yet who would object to the treatment allowing him to continue his career?

I don't see a problem at all with this sort of treatment. Especially if it proves useful and safe for the rest of us.

"Faster, please"

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macluck

05/14/11 at 9:48 am

And what if he had cancer? Using your own cleaned up stem cells is a therapy for some cancers. Your own stem cells are the same "age" as you are. All it did was help repair his own arm. And in response to "yosifcuervo", yes "getting stems cells sucked out of your bone marrow " is not a pleasant experience. All leukimia and lymphoma patients get it done on a regular basis.

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nighthawkich

05/15/11 at 2:56 pm

"Professional" sports is entertainment. This isn't the Olympics. Who really cares if they dope themselves until they explode honestly. As long as they are thoroughly informed that it is guaranteed to kill them eventually, I think they should allow everything. Bring on the PCP leagues! That would be some of the most interesting games ever.

We are still only beginning to tap the regenerative properties of stem cells and are discovering more every day. While this is a very shallow story, i am very interested to see what future research will unveil.

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QIII

05/18/11 at 11:17 pm

When they can fix Bartolo Arm's broken colon, give me a call.

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