'Living medicine’ therapy by NHS can offer hope to patients with aggressive leukaemia

NHS England will soon start administering a breakthrough immunotherapy for patients with an aggressive form of leukaemia. The CAR T-cell therapy, known as ‘obe-cel’, saw over three-quarters of patients go into remission in trials. It involves "taking a patient’s immune cells and reprogramming them in a lab to identify and target their cancer, before returning them to the body as living medicine," the NHS said. It will be available within weeks through specialist centres. Eligible patients will receive two doses of CAR-T therapy intravenously, ten days apart. Patients who received the therapy in trials described it as having a “wondrous” effect. England’s top cancer doctor believes this could let patients with aggressive leukaemia live free from cancer for longer, and could even be "hope of a cure".

Professor Peter Johnson, NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer, said, "This cutting-edge therapy has shown real promise in trials and could give patients with this aggressive form of leukaemia a chance to live free from cancer for longer – and, for some, it could offer the hope of a cure." He added, "This ‘living medicine’ boosts a patient’s own immune system and then guides T-cells towards the cancer to kill it."

Who is eligible for T-cell therapy, known as ‘obe-cel’?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approval will lead the therapy to help around 50 patients each year in England. People aged 26 and over, who have been living with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia which has returned or not responded to previous treatment, will be eligible for the therapy. In a clinical trial, 77 per cent of patients saw their cancer enter remission after treatment with obe-cel. Notably, half of them showed no signs of detectable cancer after three and a half years. On average, the treatment let patients live for 15.6 months more.

The therapy also has a lower toxicity and is less likely to cause serious side effects as compared to other CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapies. Health Minister Ashley Dalton said, "This pioneering treatment is excellent news for patients and their families, demonstrating how the NHS is at the forefront of medical innovation. By supporting new treatments with fewer side effects and shorter hospital stays, we’re building an NHS fit for the future whilst cementing the UK’s position as a global leader in medical research.”