email article An FDA advisory committee agreed that cadaveric allogeneic pancreatic islet cells (donislecel) for treating brittle type 1 diabetes is worth the risks for certain patients. In a 12-4 vote Thursday with one abstention, members of the Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee felt that, although this procedure will likely benefit only a select few patients, the benefits of possible insulin independence for them outweigh the risks that come with long-term immunosuppressive treatment. The therapy's sponsor, CellTrans, explained that existing options are limited for the some 80,000 American adults estimated to have "brittle" type 1 diabetes -- a subset of type 1 characterized by a particularly refractory form of complete insulin deficiency where patients often have vast swings in blood glucose levels.