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Nature 421, 678 (13 February 2003) | doi:10.1038/421678b

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Cancer fears cast doubts on future of gene therapy

Erika Check

A once-promising gene-therapy treatment should be used only as a last resort, advisers to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said this week.Members of the NIH's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, on 10 February, said that patients suffering from severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) should be treated by gene therapy only if they fail to respond to all other treatments.