Israeli experts report breakthrough on leukaemia

For the therapy cells are grown in a lab until they number in the millions and then re-infused back into the patient. Part of the reason for Sheba’s leading role in this therapy is that Dr Besser’s lab, at the Ella Lemelbaum Institute for Immuno-Oncology, makes the necessary cells and conducts research and clinical trials, independent of pharmaceutical companies. 

“We are producing our one cells here and I don't think there is more than a handful of places in the world that can do this,” said Dr Besser. Results will be used to advance treatment which is to be offered at Sheba. 

Dr Besser thinks that the 75 per cent remission rate is “very repeatable” as opposed to a one-off, and said that what makes this therapy such a breakthrough is that it helps people who have lost all hope. “This is really a list line therapy,” she commented. “this is really a last chance, these are people that have failed all other therapies, often including bone marrow and multiple lines of chemotherapy.”

She is confident that this therapy will become a “platform to combat other forms of cancer, as well as other diseases in the near future.”