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Agence France-Presse

Doctors in Britain have hailed a pioneering treatment for an aggressive form of leukaemia, after a teen became the first patient to be given a new therapy and went into remission.
The 13-year-old girl, identified only as Alyssa, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2021.
But her blood cancer did not respond to conventional treatment, including chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant.
She was enrolled on a clinical trial of a new treatment at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) using genetically engineered immune cells from a healthy volunteer.


In 28 days her cancer was in remission, allowing her to receive a second bone marrow transplant to restore her immune system.
Six months on, she is “doing well” back home in Leicester, central England, and receiving follow-up care.
“Without this experimental treatment, Alyssa’s only option was palliative care,” the hospital said in a statement on Sunday.
Robert Chiesa, a GOSH consultant, said her turnaround had been “quite remarkable”, although the results still needed to be monitored and confirmed in the next few months.
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Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common kind of cancer in children and affects cells in the immune system, known as B cells and T cells, which fight and protect against viruses.
GOSH said Alyssa was the first patient known to have been given base-edited T cells, which involves chemically converting single nucleotide bases – letters of the DNA code – which carry instructions for a specific protein.
Researchers at GOSH and University College London helped develop the use of genome-edited T cells to treat B-cell leukaemia in 2015.
But to treat some other types of leukaemia the team had to overcome the challenge that T cells designed to recognise and attack cancerous cells had ended up killing each other during the manufacturing process.
Donors needed for girl, 2, with leukaemia in coronavirus-hit London
Multiple additional DNA changes were needed to the base-edited cells to allow them to target cancerous cells without damaging each other.
“This is a great demonstration of how, with expert teams and infrastructure, we can link cutting edge technologies in the lab with real results in the hospital for patients,” said GOSH consultant immunologist and professor Waseem Qasim.
“It’s our most sophisticated cell engineering so far and paves the way for other new treatments and ultimately better futures for sick children.”
Alyssa said in the statement she was spurred to take part in the trial not just for herself but for other children.
Her mother, Kiona, added: “Hopefully this can prove the research works and they can offer it to more children.”
The researchers were presenting their findings this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.


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Britain

UK doctors hail ‘remarkable’ world-first treatment for resistant leukaemia

Doctors sitting around the table and interpreting x-ray image. Photo: Shutterstock/File

Friends in Hong Kong join search for bone marrow donor to help UK boy with serious blood condition

Alfie Pinckney was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia and his family is now searching for a bone marrow transplant match. Photo: Handout

Alfie Pinckney was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia and  his family is now searching the globe for a match for bone marrow transplant. HANDOUT PHOTO

Hong Kong resident Anna Rayton is distribution leaflets through her restaurant to help spread the word and find potential donors for Alfie. HANDOUT PHOTO

Hong Kong public hospitals to offer gene-altering therapy to some cancer patients who don’t respond to other treatments

Former beach volleyball player Kelvin Lau was the first in Hong Kong to benefit from cancer treatment CAR T-cell therapy, outside of clinical trials. Photo: Lau Tsz

Royalty-free stock illustration ID: 10994415293d illustration of T cells attacking cancer cells. Shutterstock Images

Dr Lau Sze-man(left) and Dr Lee Lap-yip of Hospital Authority talk about HA to launch immunization therapy for blood cancer patients - Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells or abbreviated as CarT. 18MAY21 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

‘Ants biting all over body’: Chinese boy endures ‘excruciating’ bone marrow transplant to save mother with leukaemia

A little Chinese boy’s determination to save his mother from Leukemia after he was found to be the only suitable bone marrow donor has touched millions in China. Photo: SCMP composite  

Xuanyi’s father previously described his son as ‘scared of pain’, but said his son never once complained during the intense, and at times painful preparation for the operation. Photo: Weibo

Xuanyi’s had to receive many doses of a drug to improve the operations chance of success, but with side effects that are: ‘Excruciating, because it feels like ants are biting you all over’ says his father. Photo: Weibo

Doctors treating Xuanyi’s mother say the fight is not over yet, and that the next stage of her treatment will focus on rebuilding her body’s blood cell production. Photo: Weibo

Coronavirus: Singapore start-up thinks cat leukaemia drug could be Covid-19 cure

A man wearing a face mask amid the coronavirus outbreak carries a kitten on his rucksack in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: AFP

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2nd L) shake hands with Health Minister Gan Kim Yong during a visit at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases building at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore on January 31, 2020. - Patients infected with the virus similar to the SARS pathogen are warded in isolation rooms at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases according to the health ministry as Singapore bans January 28 new arrivals with recent travel to virus-hit Chinese province ramping up government measures against the spread of a deadly virus. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

FILE - This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. On Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, The Associated Press reported on a video circulating online incorrectly asserting that man in Wuhan, China, was sanitizing his apartment with alcohol when the air conditioner came on and caused an explosion and fire. The fire captured on video was the result of a cigarette that was improperly put out on a comforter. The comforter then ignited and was placed on a balcony where nearby debris caught fire in Chongqing, China, a city hundreds of miles away from Wuhan. (NIAID-RML via AP)

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A 13-year-old girl in the UK saw her cancer go into remission 28 days after receiving a pioneering treatment for an aggressive form of leukaemia
Treatment allowed her to receive a second bone marrow transplant to restore her immune system, and is doing well six months on, and receiving follow-up care



A 13-year-old girl in the UK saw her cancer go into remission 28 days after receiving a pioneering treatment for an aggressive form of leukaemia.


Disease

Medicine