A one-year-old girl with leukaemia who had been given months to live is on the way to being cured after a world-first cell transplant.
A pioneering treatment using genetically edited cells helped Layla Richards to fight back against the blood cancer when conventional treatments failed.
Scientists yesterday hailed the “exciting” breakthrough at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, which could give lifetime remission to children and adults with the condition. Leukaemia is the ninth most common form of cancer in Britain, causing some 5,000 deaths each year.
The team which developed the therapy believe that it could also be effective against other cancers and inherited diseases, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives each year.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street had tried to eradicate Layla’s