Report: Fetal stem cells trigger tumors in ill boy

A family desperate to save a child from a lethal brain disease sought highly experimental injections of fetal stem cells — injections that triggered tumors in the boy's brain and spinal cord, Israeli scientists reported Tuesday. Scientists are furiously trying to harness different types of stem cells — the building blocks for other cells in the body — to regrow damaged tissues and thus treat devastating diseases. But for all the promise, researchers have long warned that they must learn to control newly injected stem cells so they don't grow where they shouldn't, and small studies in people are only just beginning. Tuesday's report in the journal PLoS Medicine is the first documented case of a human brain tumor — albeit a benign, slow-growing one — after fetal stem cell therapy, and hammers home the need for careful research. The journal is published by the Public Library of Science. "Patients, please beware," said Dr. John Gearhart, a stem cell scientist at the University of Pennsylvania who wasn't involved in the Israeli boy's care but who sees similarly desperate U.S. patients head abroad to clinics that offer unproven stem cell injections. Article

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Comments

  1. You can't play GOD and come out ahead. Why murder babies just for the stem cells that don't work.

    At present, adult stem cell, taken from the adult to be treated, has shown overwelming success. But no one wants to use this because "you can't make as much money". With embrynic stem cells, you get to kill 2 people, the baby you took the cells from and the patient you injected them in!

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