A revolutionary treatment eradicates cancer in a 13-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

British researchers used a revolutionary treatment for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, whose results stun the world of science.

In May last year, Alyssa, a 13-year-old girl, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and has since battled the cancer using the various treatments available, from chemotherapy to bone marrow transplants, without success.

Just when all hope was lost, a team at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London decided to use a technique called base editing, invented just six years earlier – a technique that allows scientists to amplify a specific part of the genetic code and change the molecular structure using only one base of four (adenine). [A]cytosine [C]Guanine [G] and thymine [T]) that make up our genetic code, transforming it into another and thus changing the genetic instructions.

Through this precise technique, the team of doctors and scientists at that hospital were able to create a new type of T cell that is capable of killing Alyssa’s cancerous cells.

When the doctors pitched the idea to the family, the decision rested with Alyssa, who decided she would be the first to undergo this experimental treatment, which contains millions of modified cells – which ended up being released in May of this year.

After treatment, Alyssa was vulnerable to infection, as the modified cells attacked cancerous T cells and the cells that protect them from disease. A month later, Alyssa’s cancer was in remission, and she then underwent a second bone marrow transplant to rehabilitate her immune system.

Since then, Alyssa has been free of leukemia. The family does not hide its enthusiasm. “The doctors said the first six months are the most important. We don’t want to be unrealistic, but we kept thinking, ‘If they can get her out… [o cancro]Just once, you’ll be fine. And the girl’s mother, Keona, said, quoting the girl’s mother, “And we may be right.” Watchman.

Now, the GOSH team wants to find 10 more patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia who, like Alyssa, had undergone all the conventional treatments, for future trials. If the results are positive, the researchers hope that the technique can be used in patients with other types of leukemias and diseases.

“This is the most advanced cellular engineering yet, and it paves the way for other therapies and a brighter future for sick children,” said immunologist Waseem Qasim, one of the researchers leading the project who will be in New Orleans this weekend. Presenting the results of this study at the meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

With this treatment, donor compatibility is not an issue because it depends on the donor’s T cells which can be edited. “This is a universal ‘ready-to-use’ cell therapy and, if replicated, could be the starting point for using this type of therapy,” admitted Louise Jones, Ph. The Medical Research Council funded the project.