J：It has been 8 months since you introduced cell therapy, and I know it is just the beginning, but how do you feel about it as a start?
Arii：Fortunately, the incubator (incubator) is always running, and at times we have had three specimens being incubated at the same time. So far, we have not had to turn off the power.
J：Have there been any changes in the hospital as a whole since the introduction of the system?
Arii：Is it currently a weapon to give the hospital a distinctive look? I have a feeling that it is. Although we ultimately did not perform cell therapy, there are pet owners who came to us as their primary caregivers because of our suggestion of cell therapy.
In some cases, we receive inquiries about cell therapy. One person was diagnosed with a hernia at another clinic and found us on J-ARM’s website through a search for “hernia treatment methods,” and eventually found our website. As a result, we feel that we have been able to help those eager pet owners who want to do something about their dogs’ condition for which there is not much in the way of treatment options.
J：How do you plan to develop cell therapy in the future?
Arii：After all, we would like to work on stem cell therapy in the future. Immuno-cell therapy is mild, but we believe that stem cells are more likely to produce clear effects. I would also like to try a freezing and thawing system because it makes the treatment easier to operate. I think some owners are resistant to anesthesia when harvesting even fat, so it would be convenient to prepare cells if we could also do transplants from other families. If we don’t lower the threshold, we won’t be able to use what we can use. How to construct such a system in my mind, and how to conduct informed decisions, are issues that I would like to address in the future.
J：What are your expectations for J-ARM regarding future cell therapy?
Arii：In the end, there are many ambiguous aspects of the treatment, such as whether it worked or did not work, whether it was good to do it or not, etc. I would like to work to provide more clear scientific evidence in these areas. It is good to be able to help children who are suffering, but I would like to try to communicate the evidence in my own way as well.
I think that cell therapy is still a new field, and there are many doctors who have doubts about it, so I hope that we can improve our skills together with doctors who are involved in the treatment, not only in terms of whether it has worked or not, but also to raise and develop this treatment itself in a way that can be verified more thoroughly. I hope we can improve and develop this treatment in a way that can be verified a little more thoroughly.
J：Could you give a message to young doctors who are considering cell therapy as you are?
Arii：Cell therapy can be a good weapon depending on how it is used. On the other hand, it takes up a lot of space and costs a lot of money, so if it is not used, there is a risk that it will become a liability for newly opened hospitals. It is attractive because it can create uniqueness as a hospital, but I think it is better to think carefully about how to market and use it before introducing it.
In my case, I considered whether there was a need for patients in the area, and even if not in the neighborhood, whether I would be helping eager owners who wanted to do something about their children with conditions that did not have much help in the way of treatment, and decided to introduce the service because I thought it had potential regarding those issues. In addition, since there are not many such treatments in the vicinity, we approached a good friend of ours in the neighborhood about introducing it to the clinic. In fact, one of the cases we treated this time was also referred by another hospital. I think cell therapy is a weapon in this hospital’s arsenal.
J：Last but not least, could you give a message to owners of dogs and cats who are also fighting cancer?。
Arii：As a veterinarian, I feel that activated lymphocyte therapy has no significant side effects at all as a treatment for tumors. If my own dog or cat had cancer, I would do it. I lost my own cat to adenocarcinoma of the lungs before I came across this therapy, and I wonder if it would have been different if I had used it. I feel that activated lymphocyte therapy is such a treatment for me.
J：Thank you very much for your valuable talk.
（Interview Date: December 10, 2014）
Hanegi Animal Hospital
Adress: 1F Daida Prime Court, 4-10-24 Daida, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 155-0033, Japan
Phone：03-6379-2542
http://hah.jp/