A New Treatment For Leukemia

By Devaki

Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 16:54

A life-saving cancer treatment offers new hope to the patients suffering from end-stage leukemia, cancer of blood or bone marrow.

The new treatment called TCR gene therapy uses body's own immune system to heal itself. It works by injecting white blood cells with an infection-fighting gene that can recognize the cancer cells. The white blood cells, which make up the body's immune system will then destroy leukemia cells.

The experts had a concern about the white blood cells, which may attack other healthy cells causing a condition called graft versus host disease (GVHD). So they also found a way to overcome GVHD, after a series of experiments. They say that TCR gene therapy is likely to be an important part of treatment for the leukemia patients, who cannot be cured with standard therapies.

The trails of the procedure are about to start in UK. A new treatment will be available with in the next ten years, says the British scientists.

The findings has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.