(SOURCES: Herbert B. Slade, M.D., chief medical officer,
Healthpoint Therapeutics, Fort Worth, Texas; Matthias Augustin,
M.D., director, Institute for Health Services Research in
Dermatology and Nursing, University Clinics of Hamburg, Germany;
Aug. 3, 2012, The Lancet online) THURSDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay
News) -- A pharmaceutical company says preliminary findings
support a spray-on treatment that uses skin cells to speed the
healing of venous leg ulcers, a condition that often strikes the
elderly. The treatment hasn't gone through all the research
necessary before it can become available in the United States,
and the approval process will take years. Also, it's not clear
how much the treatment will cost, and it's possible that future
research will reveal side effects. Still, the findings are
promising and important because "current treatments are not able
to heal everyone," said Dr. Herbert Slade, chief medical officer
of Healthpoint Therapeutics, which funded a study into the
treatment. "In the area of chroni