Indirect side effects of therapeutic trials may have led to organ failure.

Some time ago I wrote about Clinical trials of gene therapy in Cancer. Although promising alot remains to be investigated in this field, especially since the death of a 28-year-old patient, who participated in a gene-therapy trial based in Frankfurt:

"Scientists in Germany are trying to establish what exactly caused the death of a 28-year-old patient participating in a gene-therapy trial based in Frankfurt. He was one of three patients recruited so far to the trial, which aims to treat the rare but life-threatening immunodeficiency condition known as chronic granulomatous disease. He died on 10 April of septic shock, which caused his internal organs to fail.

Scientists reported the death at the annual meeting of the German Society of Internal Medicine on 26 April. The researchers say they think the death was not caused directly by the replacement gene given in the therapy, but they will investigate the question."

Link to the full newsarticle in Nature news