Report: Fetal stem cells trigger tumors in ill boy

[bijou]

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.

"Cells are not drugs. They can misbehave in so many different ways, it just is going to take a good deal of time" to prove how best to pursue the potential therapy, Gearhart said.

...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96DLTT00&show_article=1

[DumbAss Tanker]

All moral questions aside, adult stem cells from the patient seem like the only sane approach.  Fetal stem cells would almost by nature become a parasitic growth.

[bijou]

All moral questions aside, adult stem cells from the patient seem like the only sane approach.  Fetal stem cells would almost by nature become a parasitic growth.

I don't know if any treatment involving foetal cells has yet been successful, while adult stem cells seem to be at the very least a promising line of enquiry.  The whole issue may just wither away from lack of success.

[thundley4]

I don't know if any treatment involving foetal cells has yet been successful, while adult stem cells seem to be at the very least a promisisng line of enquiry.  The whole issue may just wither away from lack of success.

I don't see that happening since the left seemed to have made fetal stem cell use/research a cause celebre', (sp?) , and for some they seem to think it somehow justifies abortion.

[MrsSmith]

I don't know if any treatment involving foetal cells has yet been successful, while adult stem cells seem to be at the very least a promisisng line of enquiry.  The whole issue may just wither away from lack of success.

It would if funding were left to private companies...who expect a profit at some point.