First long-term success for gene therapy cures leukemia

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

In the study the researchers used
a disabled lentivirus to introduce a
gene into T-cells that would pro-
duce a protein on the cell surface
that would lock on to the leukemic
cells. (Image provided by the
National Institutes of Health)

For the first time a patient’s own cells have been successfully re-engineered to kill leukemia cells over a long period of time, researchers in Pennsylvania report.

In this first successful use of gene therapy to treat cancer, two people with advanced stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia have seen their cancers eliminated for more than a year, and a third has been living with the cancer held in check for that long. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, is a common form of leukemia that causes over-production of non-functioning B-cells, the blood cells that normally protect the body with antibodies.  (Link to published site