A major breakthrough has been made in the fight against pediatric leukemia. The FDA has just approved a “living drug” that engineers a patient’s blood cells into a weapon to destroy leukemia.
The CAR-T cell treatment is the first drug of its kind to hit the US market. Dr. Stephan Grupp of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia treated the first child with this experimental drug. She had been near death but has been cancer free for five years. He calls this FDA approval, “enormously exciting.”
The CAR-T treatment is different than typical treatments because it uses gene therapy to allow the patient’s own immune system to zero in and fight cancer directly. More information on this groundbreaking cancer treatment is in the video below.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL ) affects 3,000 children and young adults annually. This new treatment could completely change not only their prognosis but their health during treatment, possibly bypassing some of the side effects of traditional cancer treatments.
This is exciting for cancer treatment in general as it opens up a whole new avenue for possible treatment options.
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Source: ABC 7
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