Benign skin growths on the face of President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko saved his life after he had been poisoned with dioxin five years ago. The Swiss doctors made such a conclusion who treated and monitored him after unsuccessful attempt on his life on September 5 2004, New Scientist reports.

The lumps that grew on the face and body of Viktor Yushchenko as a result probably saved his life by isolating the dioxin away from his vital, internal organs. They also helped to detoxify the poison, known chemically as TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlrodibenzo-p-dioxin), by producing powerful enzymes called cytochrome p450s that are normally confined to the liver.

According to the doctors, when in autumn 2004 Viktor Yushchenko asked doctors for help, Yushchenko had concentrations of TCDD 50,000 times higher than those typically found in people. Jean Saurat, the dermatologist heading the team which treated Yushchenko at the Swiss Centre in Geneva. Saurat declined to specify details of how his team treated Yushchenko, saying these will be disclosed in a forthcoming paper.

However, the study released this week reveals that the treatment involved the anti-obesity drug orlistat, and olestra, a zero-calorie, indigestible fat product developed but rejected for use in food because it absorbed vitamins on its way through the gut, and caused "anal leakage" in some consumers. Dioxin is known to be stored in fat. Saurat said Olestra was used early on, but was not the main component of the treatment. "He's not completely clean yet, but we've got more than 95 per cent of it out now," Podrobnosti cites the head of the team of toxicologists as saying.

By monitoring concentrations of dioxin in blood, fatty tissue, faeces, skin, urine and sweat, Saurat established that about 60 per cent of the dioxin was excreted unchanged, mainly in the faeces. It took about 15 months for half of the contaminant to be excreted.