New Gene Therapy May Cure A Deadly Form of Leukemia

 

Leukemia is one of the most common cancers in children. In India, nearly one in three childhood cancer cases is leukemia. It affects both children and adults, but it is especially dangerous in young patients. Now, doctors and scientists say a new treatment may finally offer a cure for a form of leukemia that was once considered almost impossible to treat.

 

The treatment is called BE-CAR7. It is a new type of gene therapy. In early international trials, many patients who received it saw their cancer disappear completely and stayed cancer-free for years. Experts say this could be a major turning point in blood cancer treatment.

 

For the uninitiated, leukemia is a cancer of the blood. It starts in the bone marrow, where blood cells are made. One aggressive type is called T-cell leukemia. Normally, doctors use a treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, where they take a patient’s own immune cells, change them in a lab, and send them back to fight the cancer. But in T-cell leukemia, the cells often attack each other instead of the cancer. Because of this, many patients do not respond well to chemotherapy or even bone marrow transplants.

 

How BE-CAR7 Works

BE-CAR7 works differently. Doctors use healthy immune cells from a donor which are carefully changed in the lab using a precise gene-editing method. Scientists make three important changes:

The cells are altered so the patient’s body does not reject them.

The cells are prevented from attacking each other.

The cells are trained to recognise and kill cancer cells.

Once these cells are put into the patient’s body, they act like a living drug. They hunt down and destroy cancer cells in the blood. After this, many patients receive a bone marrow transplant to help rebuild a healthy immune system.

What Have the Trials Found So Far?

 

Cancer patient

About 8 out of 10 patients went into deep remission (image for representation only) (Getty Images)

The first patient to receive BE-CAR7 was a 13-year-old girl. Within 28 days, doctors could find no trace of cancer in her body. The trial was then expanded to include more children and adults. So far, the results look very hopeful:

About 8 out of 10 patients went into deep remission.

 

Nearly 6 out of 10 patients stayed cancer-free for up to three years.

For patients who had run out of treatment options, this was life-changing.

This is not quite a cure, at least not officially. Researchers say BE-CAR7 is still experimental. More studies are needed to make sure it is safe in the long run and to see how long the benefits last. But the early success has already changed thinking in cancer research. Scientists are now exploring whether similar gene therapies can be used for other blood cancers as well. For now, BE-CAR7 offers something many leukemia patients rarely hear: real hope.