A one-year-old girl is the first person in the world to receive a
‘designer’ immune therapy which cured her of ‘incurable’ leukaemia.
Layla Richards received the ground-breaking treatment at Great Ormond
Street Hospital (GOSH) in central London. after being diagnosed with
acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), aged only 14 weeks.
Layla went through extensive chemotherapy treatment but the cancer
proved persistent and doctors advised her parents to consider palliative
care options.
Her father, Ashleigh Richards, 30, a driver, said: ‘It was scary to
think that the treatment had never been used in a human before but, even
with the risks, there was no doubt that we wanted to try the treatment.
She was sick and in lots of pain so we had to do something.’
This new treatment involves using ‘molecular scissors’ to edit genes
and create designer immune cells programmed to hunt out and kill
drug-resistant leukaemia.
Layla was given a small 1ml infusion of genetically-engineered cells,
known as UCART19 cells. Within one to two weeks, doctors expected to
see immune response – usually in the form of a rash or a fever.
She developed neither over a two-week period, however, just as
doctors were preparing to send her home – Layla developed a rash but
otherwise seemed well.
Mr Richards said: ‘Even though she is well at the moment, we still don’t know what the future holds.
‘She will still have monthly bone marrow checks for now and might be on some medicines for the rest of her life.’
