LEUKEMIA CURE REALLY WORKS!
AREVOLUTIONARY gene therapy, which transforms blood cells into tiny cancer-killers, has cured two leukemia patients who were first treated more than a decade ago, experts say.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania administered CAR-T cell therapy to two men with the blood cancer in 2010. Now they say both patients later showed no signs of the deadly disease!
The process involves taking cells from the patient’s own blood, which are changed in a lab by adding a gene for a manmade receptor — known as the chimeric antigen receptor
— and injecting them back into the same individual.
The technique converts T-cells — a type of white blood cell that’s the base of the body’s immune system — into cancer-fighting cells, which are described as living drugs. “We can now conclude that CART cells can actually cure patients of leukemia,” says UPenn’s Dr. Carl June.
Doug Olson, 75, of Pleasanton, Calif., was one of the two patients enrolled in the groundbreaking study and says, “I’m doing great right now.”
Bill Ludwig, the second man in the trial, also showed promising results before his death from COVID-19 in early 2021, researchers say.
CAR-T cell therapy has already been approved by the FDA for some kinds of lymphomas and leukemias, as well as multiple myeloma.
Experts are hopeful the method may ultimately be utilized to treat all blood cancers.
According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, nearly 200,000 Americans are diagnosed with blood cancers annually — leading to more than 60,000 deaths each year.