Game changer for cancer treatment

Leukemia Breakthrough Aided by Cloning Healthy Immune Cells is Expected To Be Approved by F.D.A.

Diane Lilli
Posted

The FDA is expected to approve the first new gene therapy treatment in the U.S. for Leukemia, after an advisory panel unanimously voted in favor of it yesterday.

The members of the FDA panel voted 10-0 to approve what is being hailed as a breakthrough in treating Leukemia.

The new therapy first removes the immune blood cells from blood, and then doctors treat the patient to kill the cancer cells.

The healthy immune blood cells will be mass produced once outside the body, and then when injected back into the patient's blood will act as a super-powerful killer of the malignant cancer cells. This cloning of healthy cells is expected to create a new wave of treatment for many more types of cancer.

After targeting the cancer cells, doctors then put the healthy immune cells back into the blood of patients. This new treatment took years to create, and if approved by the F.D.A. as expected, could be used in treatment within 5 years here in the U.S.

Currently, reports show 160 people each day or more than six people every hour. Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to cause the deaths of an estimated 58,300 people in the US in 2017.