Immune-system therapy shows promise in adults with leukaemia: Study

NEW YORK (REUTERS) - An experimental therapy that tweaks cancer patients' own immune cells to recognise an often-deadly form of leukaemia has shrunk tumours and sent the cancer into remission in adults, according to a United States study published on Wednesday.

Although a similar immune-system approach has shown promise in children with this cancer as well as in adults with a related form of leukaemia, it is the first time this particular therapy has worked in adults.

Scientists said the finding, which was based on a study of five adults, had "life-saving potential". The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The experimental therapy targeted acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a blood-cell cancer that often proves resistant to chemotherapy and can kill in mere weeks. It is more common in children but especially deadly when it occurs in adults.