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Doctors Shocked By Girl's Leukaemia Recovery

Doctors Shocked By Girl's Leukaemia Recovery

A one-year-old girl has had a "staggering" recovery from leukaemia thanks to a last-ditch attempt to save her life by using designer immune cells.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital say the "molecular scissors" procedure is "almost a miracle" and could be a breakthrough in treating leukaemia and other cancers.

Chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants had failed to stop Layla Richards' cancer and time appeared to be running out.

Her mother, Lisa Foley, 27, said she was determined not to "give up" on her daughter, who had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).

"We didn't want to accept palliative care and so we asked the doctors to try anything for our daughter, even if it hadn't been tried before,"she said.

Layla's father Ashleigh Richards said she may have to take drugs for the rest of her life, but after spending months in isolation to protect against infection she is free of cancer.

Scientists used the gene-editing technique - previously only tested on mice - to create designer immune cells to hunt down the drug-resistant cancer.

A special ethics committee at the London hospital had to sign off the experimental treatment.

Mr Richards said: "It was scary to think that the treatment had never been used in a human before but, even with the risks, there was no doubt that we wanted to try the treatment.

"She was sick and in lots of pain so we had to do something."

Layla was given a tiny 1ml dose of the cells, known as UCART19, in a procedure that took just 10 minutes.

She eventually produced the immune response doctors were expecting - a rash - but otherwise appeared well.

A few weeks later Mr Richards called Ms Foley.

She said: "He said that the consultants had been in with results of the treatment and told me to sit down.

"I thought it was bad news but then he said 'it's worked' and I just cried happy tears."

Professor Paul Veys, director of bone marrow transplant at GOSH, said they "were over the moon" when they found out the treatment had worked.

"Her leukaemia was so aggressive that such a response is almost a miracle," said Prof Veys.

Doctors at GOSH are not certain whether the dramatic effects will be replicated with other patients, but have still heralded it as a major milestone.

"We have only used this treatment on one very strong little girl, and we have to be cautious about claiming that this will be a suitable treatment option for all children," said Waseem Qasim, a consultant immunologist at the hospital.

"But, this is a landmark in the use of new gene engineering technology and the effects for this child have been staggering."