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.
Leave a Reply