"Stem cell tourism" ends with cancer

The introduction of stem cells led to the development of a previously unknown tumor

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

American doctors reported a case of tumor development as a result of "treatment" with stem cells in commercial clinics. Its description is published in New England Journal of Medicine ( Berkowitz et al., Glioproliferative Lesion of the Spinal Cord as a Complication of “Stem-Cell Tourism”).

66-year-old Jim Gass was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston with complaints of progressive pain in the lumbar spine, paralysis of the legs and urinary incontinence. In 2009, he suffered a stroke, as a result of which he was forced to move around in a corset and with a cane. Wanting to get rid of the effects of the disease, he used the services of commercial clinics in China, Argentina and Mexico.

According to the documents issued to Gass in these clinics, mesenchymal, embryonic and fetal stem cells were injected into his spinal canal. After a while, he developed these symptoms.

MRI with contrast revealed in the patient a neoplasm under the dura mater of the spinal cord along the entire length of the lumbar region with a transition to the thoracic. The biopsy showed that this is a dense cellular fast-growing primitive neoplasm with glial differentiation. With the help of DNA analysis, doctors found that it consists mainly not of the patient's cells.

MRI and the appearance of the neoplasm (figure from the article in NEJM)

The tumor mass had a number of signs of malignant neoplasm (atypia of cell nuclei, high level of proliferation, glial differentiation, vascular germination), but sequencing did not reveal any of the 309 genes characteristic of cancer in it.

Thus, the neoplasm cannot be attributed to any of the categories previously described in humans, experts write. The head of the department of neurosurgical treatment of spinal cord cancer, John Chi, told the Boston Globe that he had never seen anything like it – the neoplasm attached to the nerves had a "strange" sticky fibrous consistency.

After a course of radiation therapy, the volume of the neoplasm decreased, the back pain became less bothered and the patient was able to move his right leg.

Based on this case, doctors advised colleagues to inform people about the dangers of "stem cell tourism", and the patients themselves – not to consider it as a possible treatment.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  27.06.2016