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Friends- The news media have once again misinterpreted scientific data, sensationalizing the results of the fetal cell transplant study, with the NYTimes calling it a "failure," and "disastrous" while Reuters hailed it as a success. You should all try to read the full text of the study by Freed et al. published in the New England Journal of Medicine to see what the results really showed. [It is too long to attach to this post. I tried and it was rejected.] I have been quiet about the fetal cell transplant study up to this time because I am a subject in the study and I have been trying to be a fair and objective subject. But I want you all to know that it was not a disaster and a failure for me. I am one of the under-60 group who received the fetal tissue and showed significant improvement over 2-3 years. The symptoms of PD are so dose-dependent and variable in any day that it is hard to demonstrate improvement owing to a surgical procedure. This controlled study showed patients under age 60 who received transplants improved significantly more while off their medicines than did similar patients who underwent sham surgery. When only the movement scores were compared, both older and younger patients who had transplants performed better than did patients who received no fetal cells. [That may not impress Gina Kolata of the NYTimes, but I'll bet she never woke up "off" and couldn't get out of bed and walk to the bathroom.] In my case, I have shown improvement in my walking, balance and speech. I wake up in the morning "On," without dyskinesia, feeling like my normal self for an hour or so. When I go off, I feel stiff, but I still can talk and walk and I neither shuffle nor freeze, as I did preop. I take about 1/3 the daily dose of Sinemet that I needed pre-operatively so my dyskinesias are less severe. I am working and being productive. I am enjoying a full life. I am not cured, but I have a new lease on life; the clock has been turned back 7 or 8 years. I definitely would do it again. More research is needed to find out why some few patients [up to 15% in this small study] developed intractable dyskinesias, why the over-60 patients did not show significant improvement, and how best to control the size and location of transplants. But don't let the media toss out the very positive results of this study, which is still ongoing to determine long-term effects. Jacqueline Winterkorn, PhD, MD PD for 13 years 3 yrs s/p fetal cell surgery