Higher Cancer Rates Found in Patients who Received Medtronic BMP-2

Washington, DCAccording to media reports, doctors who were paid to study Medtronic's Amplify, which contains recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2, or rhBMP-2, failed to disclose a possible increased risk for cancer in patients who received the treatment on study.

Amplify containing rhBMP-2 is being studied for use in spinal surgery. rhBMP-2 is also used in Medtronic's Infuse Bone Graft. According to a report in JSOnline independent researchers identified a systematic failure to report serious complications with the protein – in no less than 13 papers. The papers were written by physicians and published in peer-review journals over a period of almost 10 years. The physicians were reportedly paid millions of dollars collectively, by Medtronic, for their work.

The findings by the independent researchers were published in Spine Journal showed that at two and three years post implant with BMP-2 there were significantly higher numbers of patients being diagnosed with cancer. This information was not reported in the other papers.