BacktoCricaddict Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 This is just thrilling to read: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63859184 A teenage girl's incurable cancer has been cleared from her body in the first use of a revolutionary new type of medicine. All other treatments for Alyssa's leukaemia had failed. So doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital used "base editing" to perform a feat of biological engineering to build her a new living drug. Six months later the cancer is undetectable, but Alyssa is still being monitored in case it comes back. Alyssa, who is 13 and from Leicester, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May last year. T-cells are supposed to be the body's guardians - seeking out and destroying threats - but for Alyssa they had become the danger and were growing out of control. Her cancer was aggressive. Chemotherapy, and then a bone-marrow transplant, were unable to rid it from her body. Without the experimental medicine, the only option left would have been merely to make Alyssa as comfortable as possible. "Eventually I would have passed away," said Alyssa. Her mum, Kiona, said this time last year she had been dreading Christmas, "thinking this is our last with her". And then she "just cried" through her daughter's 13th birthday in January Image source, What happened next would have been unthinkable just a few years ago and has been made possible by incredible advances in genetics. The team at Great Ormond Street used a technology called base editing, which was invented only six years ago. << Read the rest at link above >> ravishingravi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prakat Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 An exciting and promising development. And to think a thirteen year old is grateful for her life...what a wise young lady. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kepler37b Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Our understanding of human body HAS to increase by thousands of times. Who knows, these therapies might end up causing some other complication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijy Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 On 12/11/2022 at 11:52 PM, kepler37b said: Our understanding of human body HAS to increase by thousands of times. Who knows, these therapies might end up causing some other complication. it is conceivable, but we won't know until large-scale studies (in both large sample and long duration) are done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khota Posted December 26, 2022 Share Posted December 26, 2022 There are lots of things going on but if you get aggressive cancer your options are limited. You pretty much die. Vijy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijy Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 5 hours ago, Khota said: There are lots of things going on but if you get aggressive cancer your options are limited. You pretty much die. you win or you die... so I can understand why people would opt for experimental therapies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khota Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 8 hours ago, Vijy said: you win or you die... so I can understand why people would opt for experimental therapies They are hanging on to hope. These therapies are not curing it, most of the time they are prolonging it. Vijy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts