STEM cells could prove a double-edged sword in the treatment of diseases like leukaemia. Donna Forrest of the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada and her colleagues found that patients who had received bone-marrow transplants containing haemopoietic stem cells faced a 2.3 per cent risk of developing a secondary cancer, such as skin, lung, or breast cancer, over the course of 10 years – nearly twice the risk of the general population (Cancer, DOI: 10.1002/cncr.22375).
The team reviewed the medical records of more than 900 adult transplant recipients of this type, the vast majority of whom suffered from leukaemia.
Given…
