A groundbreaking gene-editing therapy that reprograms a patient’s immune cells to attack cancer has achieved remission in nearly two-thirds of incurable leukemia patients in an early clinical trial.
A revolutionary therapy using genetically edited white blood cells has reversed aggressive, incurable blood cancers in patients for whom all other treatments had failed. The treatment, known as base editing, precisely alters the DNA of donor T-cells to create a “living drug” that hunts and destroys cancerous T-cells in patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In the first trial of 11 patients, almost two-thirds achieved remission, enabling life-saving bone marrow transplants.
The first patient treated, 16-year-old Alyssa Tapley, remains cancer-free three years later. “I really did think that I was going to die,” said Alyssa, who now plans a career in biomedical science. Researchers described the multi-step genetic modification as a feat that “would have been science fiction” just years ago. While risks like infection and cancer recurrence remain, consultants called the results “impressive” and “striking,” offering hope where there was previously none.