"A therapy that would once have been considered a feat of science fiction has reversed aggressive and incurable blood cancers in some patients, doctors report. The treatment involves precisely editing the DNA in white blood cells to transform them into a cancer-fighting "living drug". The first girl to be treated, whose story we reported in 2022, is still free of the disease and now plans to become a cancer scientist."
""I really did think that I was going to die and I wouldn't be able to grow up and do all the things that every child deserves to be able to do," says 16-year-old Alyssa Tapley from Leicester. She was the first person in the world to have the treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is now enjoying life."
"But now her cancer is undetectable and she needs only annual check-ups. Alyssa is doing her A-levels, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, eyeing up driving lessons and planning her future. "I'm looking into doing an apprenticeship in biomedical science, and hopefully one day I'll go into blood cancer research as well," she said. The team at University College London (UCL) and Great Ormond Street Hospital used a technology called base editing. Bases are the language of life. The four types of base - adeni"
Precise DNA base editing of white blood cells has produced remissions in patients with previously incurable T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants had failed for trial participants, leaving only palliative care as an option before the experimental therapy. The treatment rewrites genetic bases in T-cells to create a cancer-fighting living drug and has been applied by teams at University College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Early results show almost two thirds (64%) of treated patients in remission. One treated teenager experienced full recovery, resumed normal activities, and plans a career in biomedical science.
Read at www.bbc.com
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