‘Living drug’ that could wipe out cancer ‘close to becoming widely available’

A ‘living drug’ that could
prevent cancer from ever
returning in the body is close
to becoming widely available,
scientists have said.
T-cell immunotherapy involves
the removal of white blood
cells – the cells of immune
system – from the patient,
manipulating them to
recognise and attack the
cancer and then growing them
to high numbers in a lab. They
are then put back into the
patient.
But the enormous potential of
this treatment, one of the first
recipients of which was British
baby Layla Richards, as a
long-term or even permanent
cure for cancer could not be
known.
The results of two studies
have been called
‘extraordinary’ and
‘unprecedented in medicine.’
‘This really is a revolution,’
said researcher Chiara Bonini.

Recall that  baby Layla Richards who was  with aggressive
leukaemia has become the
first in the world to be
treated with designer
immune cells that were
genetically engineered to
wipe out her cancer.
The one-year-old, Layla
Richards, was given
months to live after
conventional treatments
failed to eradicate the
disease, but she is now
cancer free and doing well,
a response one doctor
described as “almost a
miracle”.