Stem cell 'cure' boy gets tumour
By BBC,
BBC News
| 02. 18. 2009
A boy treated with foetal stem cells for a rare genetic disease has developed benign tumours, raising questions about the therapy's safety.
The boy, now 17, received the stem cells in 2001 at a Moscow hospital and four years later scans showed brain and spinal tumours, PLoS Medicine reports.
Israeli doctors removed the abnormal growth from his spine and tests suggest it sprouted from the stem cells.
Critics say the finding is evidence against the controversial therapy.
Apart from the ethics of using cells taken from embryos, opponents say there are big safety concerns.
As well as the possibility that stem cells may turn cancerous, some researchers fear that it is possible that stem cell therapy could unwittingly pass viruses and other disease causing agents to people who receive cell transplants.
Experimental therapy
Experts are hopeful that stem cells, which have the ability to develop into other kinds of human cells, will eventually lead to treatments for some of the most intractable conditions.
The boy in question was treated for a condition called Ataxia Telangiectasia - a genetic disease that...
Related Articles
By Gregory Laub and Hannah Glaser, MedPage Today | 08.07.2025
In this MedPage Today interview, Leigh Turner, PhD, a professor of health policy and bioethics at the University of California Irvine, unpacks the growing influence of stem cell clinics and the blurred line between medicine and marketing. He explains how...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.20.2025
A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need...
By Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 06.05.2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent.
In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert...
By Mike Baker, The New York Times | 02.25.2025
As investigators struggled for weeks to find who might have committed the brutal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022, they were focused on a key piece of evidence: DNA on a knife sheath that...
