Tsung-Lin Yang
MD. Ph.D. EMBA
Chief and Professor
Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology
National Taiwan University Hospital
Cell therapy was predominantly initiated by bone marrow transplantation decades ago. However, the application of cells for regenerative medicine and clinical treatment faced huge challenges in the translation from bench to bedside during the early stages of development. An exponential growth in experimental therapies has occurred in the past decade, majorly focusing on cancer therapy and regenerative medicine. The therapeutic scopes extend from improving clinical efficacy for incurable diseases to the innovation of novel clinical management. The widely different outcomes emerge not only because of the disease entity but also the therapeutic resources that are applied. Otorhinolaryngology enrolls head and neck surgery in various tissues. Conventional management for tissue injury in otorhinolaryngology and head and neck encompass transplantation and graft of tissue or artificial materials. Because of their limited availability, regenerative medicine, including cell therapy and tissue engineering, develops rapidly. The clinical-grade procedures are required to be followed during the preparation, particularly for those cells with distinct origins. In addition, new therapies expose new risks to clinical practice, which are difficult to be predicted and managed because of lacking knowledge and experience. This discrepancy between the expectations of the patients and clinical outcomes may be inflated, and the clinic results may desperate patients. The method of cell introduction and preparation quality is related to the final outcome in the therapeutic effects. Therefore, understanding the agents that will be used in cell therapy is an important issue that poses an emerging requirement for the physicians who will be engaged in cell therapy for expected progress.
