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An immunotherapy treatment using genetically engineered cells has been used to successfully treat two infants with an aggressive kind of leukaemia, leaving them cancer free for over a year. Because the treatment used donor immune cells it is hoped this could be given to all suitable patients, rather than tailoring treatment to each individual. The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, give an update on positive early findings for one of the children in 2015. It reports that in both cases the treatment brought about remission within 4 weeks. Since then one child has been free of cancer for one year and the other child for 18 months. The children were 11 months and 16 months old at the time of treatment. Both children received a transplant of so-called ‘universal’ immune cells engineered in the lab to target their cancer. It is thought that this is the first time this method has been tested in humans. Experts believe the research is a step towards engineering immune cells so that one batch could be used to treat multiple patients, hopefully making this treatment more cost effective and readily available. 

See original article at: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/news-report/2017-01-27-engineered-immune-cell-treatment-for-childhood-leukaemia-may-be-a-step-closer