Cancer-Causing DNA Is Found in Some Stem Cells Being Used in Patients

April 27, 2017

(STAT News) – Some human stem cells growing in labs that researchers have used in experiments to treat serious diseases contain serious cancer-causing mutations, scientists reported on Wednesday. The discovery raised alarms that patients could be treated for one disease, such as macular degeneration, only to develop another, cancer. Harvard scientists obtained samples of most of the human embryonic stem cell lines registered with the National Institutes of Health for use in both basic research and in developing therapies for patients with diseases including diabetes, Parkinson’s, and macular degeneration. They found that five of the 140 lines had cells with a cancer-causing mutation.