Patient ‘cured’ of leukemia after experimental treatment
A patient enrolled in a phase one trial
testing an experimental treatment for
leukemia has been declared cancer-free,
Medical Daily reported.
Lynsie Conradi, 23, had been battling
acute lymphoblastic leukemia for eight
years and had experienced her second
relapse when she enrolled in the trial at
Seattle Children’s Hospital. Within seven
days of entering the program, a bone
marrow test revealed that her leukemia
was gone.
Acute lymphocytic leukemia, which affects
the blood and bone marrow, is known for
progressing rapidly. The trial was open to
patients whose leukemia had failed to
respond to chemotherapy treatments,
which typically means they have less than
a 20 percent chance of survival,
according to Medical Daily.
The treatment, known as T-cell therapy,
involves reprogramming infection-fighting
T-cells in a patient’s blood to target and
fight off cancerous cells.
"Results show that Lynsie has had a
positive response to the T-cell therapy
and, at this time, we do not detect any
leukemia cells," said Dr. Rebecca Gardner,
principal investigator for the clinical trial.
Conradi will undergo one more stem cell
transplant in order to ensure that the
cancer is fully removed from her body. In
the meantime, doctors are excited about
the potential for this treatment to help
other patients.
"This is really amazing. I mean this is the
sort of result that we wait around all of
our careers to see, to see this kind of
dramatic response that we couldn't have
hoped for even five or ten years ago," Dr.
Doug Hawkins, a cancer specialist at
Seattle Children's, told Medical Daily.
