Expectations regarding regenerative medicine and attitudes toward invasive surgical therapies in patients with Parkinson’s disease: A cross-sectional survey

Introduction

Pharmacological control of the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is challenging with disease progression. Device-aided therapies help relieve these symptoms but are invasive and require specific management. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells avoid ethical concerns and may prevent immune rejection in autologous transplants. Allogeneic iPS cells are considerably more practical, despite potential concerns regarding tumor formation post-transplantation. The present study aimed to clarify the perceptions and acceptance of patients with PD regarding regenerative medicine, invasive surgical treatments (deep brain stimulation, levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel), and cell transplantation (iPS cells, embryonic stem cells, fetal-derived cells).

Methods

This prospective cross-sectional survey of 102 patients with PD applied a new questionnaire based on a previous survey of the general public’s perception of regenerative medicine.

Results

Cell-based therapies were the most popular choice, with 86.1 % of responders choosing it, mainly due to “improvement in quality of life” (69.1 %), “the possibility of slowing the disease progression” (66.2 %), and “treatment effectiveness” (51.5 %). Among these patients, 47.1 % expected regenerative medicine to become the standard therapy within several years and 82.4 % believed that regenerative medicine was safe. Autologous iPS cells were accepted by 83.8 % of the patients, while 52.5 % accepted allogeneic iPS cells.

Conclusions

Patients had high expectations for the therapeutic effects of cell-based therapies and were optimistic about its early implementation and safety in regenerative medicine, with iPS cells being the most accepted for transplantation. The present findings should be confirmed in a larger cohort, as these findings are based on a limited sample.