Leukaemia is the creation of immature white blood cells or lymphocytes and currently, through gene therapy or immunotherapy, complete remission of the disease has been achieved in 88 percent of tested individuals in one trial.
What is acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL)?
Leukaemia acute lymphocytic lymphocytic lymphoma (ALL) is a disease that involves the creation of a large number of a type of immature white blood cell, called lymphocytes. These cells multiply and replace normal cells in the bone marrow, the soft tissue in the centre of the bones that helps form blood cells.
Children between 3 and 7 years of age are usually most affected, but it can also occur in adults.
Leukaemia is one of the 10 most common cancers among American males. About 1,400 people die of ALL in the US each year, and patients often become resistant to chemotherapy and relapse.
Gene therapy to kill leukaemia cancer cells
Through gene therapy, sometimes called immunotherapy, which involves filtering the blood of patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) and obtaining white blood cells that are altered in the laboratory to carry a cancer-fighting gene, and then replenishing this blood through transfusions, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, has achieved complete remission of their disease in 88 percent of 16 patients who underwent the test.
This study is proof that these patients, who had already tried to be cured with other treatments, can be effectively treated with cell therapy.
This research, co-authored by Michael Sadelain, was based on previous experience with mice that had their T cells modified to find traces of the CD 19 protein found in leukaemia and lymphomas. Subsequently, there were other studies with 5 people, and this time it has been done with a total of 16 people.
This technique, which may be known as live drug therapy, is only applied once as it proliferates on its own. Although expensive, it is believed that the price of this therapy will fall as it becomes more widespread with the involvement of pharmaceuticals. Whether it could be applied to other types of cancer will require further study.
Biosalud, pioneer in immunogenetic medicine
Immunogenetic biomedicine allows us to treat diseases from their genetic origin, has no side effects or contraindications and is fully compatible with any treatment prescribed to the patient.
Immunogenetic medicine is one of the most important scientific advances of the 21st century and Biosalud is a pioneer in both its preventive and therapeutic aspects.
In its preventive aspect, it is used, among other things, for the prevention and early diagnosis of some cancers, and at the therapeutic level, for autoimmune and/or degenerative pathologies.
