Four victims of a disastrous medical trial which left them fighting for their lives now face the risk of developing cancer and auto-immune diseases, their solicitor said yesterday.
The men are said to have suffered damage to their immune system which has increased their risk of developing serious illnesses.
Two of the volunteers have early signs they might develop cancer, while one of the men has the early stages of the auto-immune disorder lupus.
The trial group had a rapid inflammatory response to the drug TGN1412, which they were given by medical research company Parexel in March.
The previously healthy men had volunteered to test the medication, which was designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia and multiple sclerosis.
Student Nav Modi (24), of Forest Gate, east London, who took part in the trial, said: "The doctors in the NHS said probably in six months you will be normal, but things didn't work out the way we thought."
He added that he and some of the other trial volunteers continued to have symptoms like diarrhoea, headaches and backache and went to see Prof Richard Powell, an immunologist, for a second opinion.
Mr Modi added: "According to the report from Prof Powell, he said we might have the development of some cancers and auto-immune diseases, we have more chances of having those things."
The student was gripped by pain just an hour after the drug was given to him.
Five other volunteers also suffered an adverse reaction.
But despite screaming to a doctor, he said he was told to "lie down" and given a paracetamol tablet - which he vomited back up within five minutes.
The drug trial group appear to have a problem with their T cells, which are involved in activating and directing other immune cells.
Mr Modi's solicitor, Martyn Day, who also represents three other volunteers from the trial, said: "Prof Powell has looked at the T cells, the T regulatory cells that are part of your blood, for all four of our clients.
"For all four of them, they're showing this terrible anomaly which means that they have this massive risk of both cancer and auto-immune disease.
"So this cloud will hang over them for a long time and probably forever.
"Already two of them are looking as though they are going to get a cancer, they've already got early signs of cancer, one of them's got early signs of getting lupus - which is one of the types of auto-immune disease," Mr Day said.
TeGenero, the company that manufactured the drug used in the trial, filed for insolvency earlier this month.