It looks like more troubles are ahead for Medtronic as their Infuse Bone Graft product may be found to cause an increased risk of Cancer. This is according to information found from a new study.

The study results, which were presented last week at the North American Spine Society, show that much concern is developing about the potential risk of patients developing cancer from Medtronic Infuse that is made with rhBMP-2, which is a bioengineered bone growth protein. Researchers also show that when patients use a higher-dose formulation of the Infuse, commonly referred to as Amplify, has been linked to more cancers than the ones that were found among patients that received a traditional bone graft.

The study also showed that the patients that are getting the rhBMP-2 implants also found to be two and a half times more likely to suffer from cancer during the first year of use than those that didn’t have the bone growth implanted.  The risk was five times worse than that after three years of use. Some of the cancers that have been linked to the Medical Device so far include cancers of the breast, pancreas, and prostate.

The researchers believe that even if the infuse is not a carcinogen by itself, it is probably a cancer promoter if it has been linked to cancer. This study hasn’t been published yet, however it was headed by Dr. Eugene Carragee, who is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and editor-in-chief of the Spine Journal. According to one article, “Carragee authored a report in June that found that 10% to 50% of Infuse recipients experienced complications during the clinical trials, including cancer, pain, infections and sterility. However, those problems were not mentioned in studies published by researchers with financial ties to Medtronic.”

There have been many different suspicions already going around about the infuse Medical device. In fact, data from the clinical trials have led to Congress making inquiries about the medical device, and right now Medtronic is being investigated by the Department of Justice for marketing the device for off-label uses, which is illegal. These questions have been raised by scientists first started when they started suspecting a link between male sterility and the Infuse device. Naturally, there have been some medical researchers that disagree with the cancer links, but those researchers have also been paid millions of dollars from the company and so their words can’t be trusted as unbiased.

As to how these potentially unsafe unsafe medical devices reach consumers; current research is showing that manufacturing companies like Medtronic often pay healthcare professionals, clinics, and universities that conduct their research on the companies’ behalf and they pay the clinics and hospitals off to recommend their devices over similar competing devices.

If you are hoping to get more information about the latest news with medical devices you can easily find all of the information you need in the virtual blizzard that is the internet, however you can spend scouring the net only to find complicated and outdated information. Let me save you some time by pointing out that I found my information on medicaldevicerecall.com. It is a great resource for finding out about the newest medical device recalls and side effects, and I check out the site regularly to remain up to date.