Cellcor goes public amid cancer therapy questions. (Cellcor Therapies Inc.'s use of autolymphocyte therapy for kidney cancer patients without Food and Drug Administration approval)

Cellcor intends to go public with 2 million shares of common stock despite a controversy that blew up last year over its outpatient treatment for kidney patients.

The Newton biotechnology company has treated about 500 patients with its "living-cell therapy"--also called autolymphocyte therapy--without U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The Cellcor Biocare Center, an outpatient clinic at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, was the subject of an investigative report by radio station WBUR-FM last May.

Cellcor claims that its therapy extends the life of terminally ill kidney cancer patients by approximately one year, at a cost of as much as $42,000 annually. No cure for kidney cancer has yet been discovered.

Living-cell therapy is within the jurisdiction of the FDA, according to spokeswoman Monica Revelle, who declined to comment specifically on Cellcor.

In its prospectus, Cellcor acknowledges that the FDA could decide to restrict its …