NEW YORK: Doctors in Brazil may have found a cure for Type 1 diabetes using stem cells provided by the patients themselves, CBA news reported on Saturday. It said that 13 young diabetics in Brazil have ditched their insulin shots and need no other medication thanks to a risky, but promising treatment with their own stem cells — apparently the first time.

Though too early to call it a cure, the procedure has enabled the young people, who have Type I diabetes, to live insulin-free so far, some for as long as three years. The treatment involves stem cell transplants from the patients’ own blood, the news channel said.

“It’s the first time in the history of Type 1 diabetes that people have gone with no treatment whatsoever ... no medications at all, with normal blood sugars,” said study co-author Dr Richard Burt of Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago.

While the procedure can be life-threatening, none of the 15 patients in the study died or suffered lasting side effects. But it didn’t work for two of them. For now, the new treatment does not apply to the nearly 20 million Americans with Type 2 diabetes, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr Jon LaPook.