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British doctors offer a groundbreaking treatment for a form of leukemia

British doctors offer a groundbreaking treatment for a form of leukemia

British doctors defended the effectiveness of an innovative treatment against an aggressive form of leukemia, which is the most common type of cancer in children, after the first patient who benefited from it recovered.

Alyssa, a 13-year-old girl, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2021. However, her leukemia did not respond to conventional treatments, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

So I took part in a clinical trial at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London for a new treatment that uses genetically modified immune cells from a healthy volunteer.

Within 28 days, she was in remission, which allowed her to have a second bone marrow transplant to restore her immune system, researchers explained this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Six months later, she was “in good health” and returned home to Leicester, central England, where she is receiving medical care.

“Without this experimental treatment, Alyssa’s only option was palliative care,” the hospital said in a statement Sunday.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects cells of the immune system, B and T lymphocytes that fight and protect against viruses.

The hospital said Alyssa is the first known patient to receive the modified T cells. The processing involves the chemical transformation of the DNA code letters.

Researchers at the hospital and those at University College London helped develop the use of engineered T cells to treat B-cell leukemia in 2015.

But these T cells designed to attack cancer cells ended up killing each other during the manufacturing process, leading scientists to consider other solutions.

“This is a great demonstration of how we can combine cutting-edge technologies in the lab with real results in the hospital for patients, with expert teams and infrastructure,” said Waseem Qasim, consultant immunologist and professor at GOSH.

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He added that this “paves the way for other new treatments and ultimately a better future for sick children.” Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children.

Alyssa said in a statement that she conducted the trial herself, but also for the children of other patients.

“I hope this proves to be a successful research and that it can be introduced to more children” who suffer from the disease, added his mother, Keona.