UK: NIH to Offer Pioneering Cancer Gene Stem Cell Therapy called CAR-T
MIRACLE cancer cure on the NHS: Gene-therapy treatment
programmes body to DESTROY disease
A REVOLUTIONARY cancer treatment which programmes the
body’s immune cells to identify and destroy the disease is to be launched in
the UK following trials which showed 40 per cent of dying adult patients were
free of the illness just one year on.
By LUCY JOHNSTON, EXCLUSIVE 08:35, Sun, Jun 3, 2018 |
UPDATED: 10:41, Sun, Jun 3, 2018
Research into the
therapy has been described as a “staggering” and “game changing”
Professor Karol
Sikora
Research into the therapy, to be unveiled at a leading
cancer conference next month, has been described as a “staggering” and “game
changing” development which could save tens of thousands of lives a year.
Now the NHS is preparing to offer the pioneering cancer
gene therapy across the UK.
The treatment, available in the US since August last year
after being approved as the first gene therapy available, is set to be given
the approval by European watchdogs later this year.
It is called CAR-T therapy, a reference to the cells it
customises.
Global trial results into blood cancer B-cell lymphoma –
to be presented at European Hematological Association conference in Stockholm,
Sweden, later this month – show 60 per cent of 111 terminally ill patients
enjoyed significant improvements in their condition a year after the infusion
therapy, which customised their immune or T-cells to kill cancer cells.
In 40 per cent of cases patients remained completely free
of the disease after 12 months.
Results of previous research in 75 terminally ill
children and young adults with lymphocytic leukaemia were even more
spectacular.
More than 80 per cent of end stage terminally ill
patients were completely free of disease after three months of treatment.
After a year 73 per cent were free of the disease for an
average of 20 months or more.
The results have been so impressive scientists have now
launched trials into using the technique to fight tumours.
Professor Agamemnon Epenetos, a leading cancer expert and
visiting professor at Imperial College London, said: “These results are
remarkable in patients for whom all treatments have failed. This could be a
possible cure for some of these.
“The treatment opens up the possibility of waking up
immune cells, to revolutionise cancer treatments for many other forms of cancer
in the future.”
Professor Karol Sikora, former adviser to the World
Health Organisation on cancer care, said: “No other treatment could have helped
so many people so dramatically at that stage of disease in any form of cancer.
“I am very excited. It is a serious powerful response in
people who are basically dying. These results are staggering. It is game
changing and absolutely remarkable.”
However, he added, in the future drug manufacturers would
need to lower their price to make the drug affordable if it was adapted to be
used widely.
In America, it is estimated the treatment costs a one-off
fee of £500,000 per patient.
At a recent meeting of the Association of British
Pharmaceutical Industry NHS boss Simon Stevens said: “Preparations are underway
to make CAR-T one of the most innovative treatments that has ever been offered
on the NHS available to patients.
“But manufacturers need to set affordable prices so
treatments can be made available to all who need them.”
The trials, known as the Juliet study and to be presented
on June 16, were led by Professor Stephen Schuster, a world leading expert in
blood cancer at the University of Pennsylvania.
Comments
Post a Comment