London

An incurable cancer was cleared inside the body of a teenage girl with the use of a revolutionary gene therapy after all other treatments failed to cure 13-year-old Alyssa's leukaemia.

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So, the doctors of Great Ormond Street Hospital decided to use "base editing" to build a new living drug for the patient. Now, six months later, the cancer is not being detected inside the girl's body, however, she is still being monitored. 

In May last year, Alyssa was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. T-cells act as guardians of our body, however, in her case, their growth was uncontrollable and had become dangerous. 

The nature of her cancer was aggressive and neither chemotherapy nor a bone-marrow transplant was able to help her. If there was no experimental medicine, then doctors had the only option to reduce the pain she was enduring. 

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"Eventually I would have passed away," Alyssa said. Her mother Kiona said that she was dreading Christmas last year, "thinking this is our last with her" and that she was just crying on the 13th birthday of her daughter in January.

The miracle that unfolded next was unthinkable a few years back and was made possible today due to the advancement achieved in genetics.

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The technology of base editing, which came into existence six years ago, was used by the doctors at Great Ormond Street. 

Alyssa was the one who decided to be the first patient to receive the experimental therapy in May this year. 

Great Ormond Street's Prof Waseem Qasim said, “She's the first patient to be treated with this technology. He added that genetic manipulation was a "very fast-moving area of science" and has "enormous potential" to deal with various diseases.

Today Alyssa is hoping to have a great Christmas, dressing up as a bridesmaid at the wedding of her aunt, going to school and doing all the normal stuff.

(With inputs from agencies)