Stem cells
Whilst stem cells never form a part of any recognised therapy for SMA, a number of private companies, usually located in countries with lax regulatory oversight, take advantage of media hype and market stem cell injections as a "cure" for a vast range of disorders, including SMA. The medical consensus is that such procedures offer no clinical benefit whilst carrying significant risk, therefore people with SMA are advised against them. In 2013–2014, a small number of SMA1 children in Italy received court-mandated stem cell injections following the Stamina scam, but the treatment was reported having no effect

Registries
People with SMA in the European Union can participate in clinical research by entering their details into registries managed by TREAT-NMD. See also
Accomable
Motor neuron disease

References
Further reading
External links

Spinal muscular atrophy at Curlie
SMA at NINDS
SMArt Moves. Cure SMA. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
Treatment
There are two internationally accepted treatment protocols, which are geographically based:
North America: the Childrens Oncology Group (COG) JMML study
Europe: the European Working Group for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (EWOG-MDS) JMML studyThe following procedures are used in one or both of the current clinical approaches listed above:

Splenectomy
The theory behind splenectomy in JMML is that the spleen may trap leukemic cells, leading to the spleens enlargement, by harboring dormant JMML cells that are not eradicated by radiation therapy or chemotherapy for the active leukemia cells, thus leading to later relapse if the spleen is not removed. However, the impact of splenectomy on post-transplant relapse, though, is unknown. The COG JMML study includes splenectomy as a standard component of treatment for all clinically stable patients. The EWOG-MDS JMML study allows each childs physician to determine whether or not a splenectomy should be done, and large spleens are commonly removed prior to bone marrow transplant. When a splenectomy is scheduled, JMML patients are advised to receive vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenza at least 2 weeks prior to the procedure. Following splenectomy, penicillin may be administered daily in order to protect the patient against bacterial infections that the spleen would otherwise have protected against; this daily preventative regimen will often continue indefinitely. Chemotherapy
The role of chemotherapy or other pharmacologic treatments against JMML before bone marrow transplant has not been studied completely and its importance is still unknown. Chemotherapy by itself has proven unable to bring about long-term survival in JMML.