13-year-old Alyssa Defeats Leukemia in World-first Clinical Trial

Following a world-first trial using a cutting-edge form of medicine, a 13-year-old girl named Alyssa was declared free of her fatal cancer. A bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy were performed on Alyssa, but her leukaemia persisted.

Then, at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, the Leicester-based teen received genetically modified T cells as part of the first application of the therapy. Without the medication, doctors predicted that palliative care would have been Alyssa’s next step, but a month later, she entered remission.

Alyssa stated prior to the experimental procedure: “Once I do it, people will know what they need to do, so doing this will help people – of course I’m going to do it.”

New technology was used to modify the pre-made cells from a healthy volunteer donor so that they could find and kill malignant T-cells without harming each other. It is the job of T-cells, a type of white blood cell, to seek out and destroy damaged cells wherever they may be in the body.

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) was Alyssa’s diagnosis a year ago. With over 1000 cases yearly, it is the most prevalent form of cancer in kids and teenagers. The survival rate for those whose T-ALL has relapsed is only 10 per cent.

The Medical Research Council supported the T-cell clinical trial, with Alyssa serving as its first participant. Alyssa achieved remission 28 days after starting the medication, enabling her to get a second bone marrow transplant. She is reportedly “doing well at home,” and Great Ormond Street is still keeping an eye on her. Up to ten T-ALL patients who have used every available conventional treatment option will be enrolled in the clinical trial, according to researchers.

“This is a great demonstration of how, with expert teams and infrastructure, we can link cutting-edge technologies in the lab with real results in the hospital for patients. It’s our most sophisticated cell engineering so far and paves the way for other new treatments and ultimately better futures for sick children,” said Professor Waseem Qasim, a consultant immunologist at GOSH.