First ever gene therapy to be approved in America

MIKE, 32, WHO TRAVELED TO PENNSYLVANIA FROM BRITAIN

Mike Brandon, 32, is now disease free after having CAR-T cell therapy last summer.

He was only able to have the breakthrough procedure after his wife Kate raised more than £450,000 through a social media campaign.

Mr Brandon, from Bristol, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in January 2014.

The illness was so advanced that his consultant told him that ‘all NHS routes were exhausted.’

He began CAR-T therapy in May 2016 at the University of Pennsylvania, and in October announced that he was cancer-free.

Mrs Brandon said at the time: ‘We have more tests ahead but, right now, we couldn’t be happier.

‘Prior to starting the trial, Mike’s bone marrow was made up of 90 per cent leukaemia cells and he was given weeks to live but thanks to the cutting edge CAR T-cell therapy he received in the US he is now cancer free.’

When launching the campaign, she had described her husband as a ‘kind, sincere and witty’ man who ‘deserved to have a chance at living life.’ 

Mike Brandon (pictured with his partner), from Bristol, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2014. He was announced cancer-free after CAR-T in 2016

ERIN, 6, WHO RAISED $180,000 TO GET TO SEATTLE FROM THE UK 

Six-year-old Erin Cross battled acute lymphoblastic leukemia for three years and had exhausted all other treatment options.

Her only chance of beating the disease was to have a bone marrow transplant – but needed to be in remission first.

And so her parents Sarah and Anthony discovered a clinic in the US which they believed to be their last hope, and traveled there in summer 2016.

After months of experimental tests, Erin was discharged from Seattle Children’s Hospital in September 2016.

A week later, back home in Chester, England, they received a phone call – to say she is officially in remission. 

AVA, 8, WHO WAS DECLARED ‘CANCER FREE’ AFTER RELAPSING 5 TIMES

When Ava Christianson was diagnosed with cancer at the age of four, doctors said she had the best odds.

She had the most common type of leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In 90 per cent of cases, a conventional course of chemotherapy does the trick.

But her experience was different.

By the age of eight, Wisconsin-born Ava had tried all of the standard therapies – from chemo to a bone marrow transplant – and relapsed five times.

However, since she was first diagnosed researchers have made astonishing strides in the field of immunotherapy, training patients’ bodies to fight their tumors. 

Ava became the 18th person in history to try the new five-minute operation at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center.

In August 2016, doctors gave her the all-clear. 

Ava Christianson, eight, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of four. She tried a new kind of therapy at the NIH clinic in Maryland last year, and was declared in remission

TWO LONDON BABIES ‘CURED’ OF TERMINAL LEUKEMIA BY GENE THERAPY

Two babies who were diagnosed with terminal leukemia were said to be cured thanks to CAR-T in London.

Layla Richards, 16 months, and an unidentified 11-month-old were injected with genetically engineered immune cells at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital last year.

The immune cells were designed to attack cancer cells after previous attempts to treat the infants using traditional methods had failed.

In January this year, doctors described the children’s response to the treatment as ‘almost a miracle’ and ‘staggering’ – hailing it as the world’s first successful treatment of cancer.

The experiment raised the possibility of off-the-shelf cellular therapy using donor cells at low cost that could be dripped into patients’ veins at a moment’s notice. 

Layla Richards, 16 months, (pictured) and an unidentified 11-month-old were injected with genetically engineered immune cells at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital last year