UNSIGHTLY skin growths helped to save the life of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko after he was poisoned five years ago. That鈥檚 the verdict of doctors who have treated and monitored Yushchenko since a would-be assassin laced his soup with dioxin in 2004.
It now turns out that Yushchenko was probably saved by the benign but ugly lumps called hamartomas that grew on his face and body 鈥� seen in the December 2004 photo below 鈥� which helped isolate the dioxin from his vital organs. They also helped to break down the poison, known more precisely as TCDD, by producing powerful enzymes called cytochrome P450s, which are normally confined to the liver.
The benign growths developed from skin stem cells. 鈥淎 new organ was created out of normal structures of the skin, made to detoxify the dioxin,鈥� says Jean-Hilaire Saurat, the dermatologist heading the team that treated Yushchenko at the in Geneva.
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鈥淗e鈥檚 not completely clean yet, but we鈥檝e got more than 95 per cent of it out now,鈥� says Saurat.
Reporting the work in The Lancet, Saurat adds that the findings will be invaluable for treating and detecting milder cases of dioxin poisoning or contamination ().