AFP, London

Doctors in Britain have hailed a pioneering treatment for an aggressive form of leukaemia, after a teenager became the first patient to be given a new therapy and went into remission.

The 13-year-old girl, identified only as Alyssa, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2021.

But her blood cancer did not respond to conventional treatment, including chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

She was enrolled on a clinical trial of a new treatment at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) using genetically engineered immune cells from a healthy volunteer.

In 28 days her cancer was in remission, allowing her to receive a second bone marrow transplant to restore her immune system.

Six months on, she is “doing well” back home in Leicester, central England, and receiving follow-up care.

“Without this experimental treatment, Alyssa’s only option was palliative care,” the hospital said in a statement yesterday.

Robert Chiesa, a GOSH consultant, said her turnaround had been “quite remarkable”, although the results still needed to be monitored and confirmed in the next few months.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common kind of cancer in children and affects cells in the immune system, known as B cells and T cells, which fight and protect against viruses.