A cancer breakthrough which helps seriously ill patients enter remission has been lauded as “incredibly impressive”.
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Greater Manchester stressed its experimental work addressing blood cancers is seeing the vast majority of people responding to treatment.
The NHS trust is conducting around 30 clinical trials for blood cancer at the moment.
Five of the clinical trials address the bone marrow cancer which develops from plasma cells, myeloma.
A stock image of a medical professional
Pixels
Other treatment options have become increasingly scarce, leading experts to celebrate the even more astounding results.
Consultant haematologist Dr Emma Searle claimed new experimental and unnamed immunotherapy drugs ensure patients are seeing their cancer drop to undetectable levels.
She said: “The results for this kind of trial - using drugs that enable the immune system to see and attack the myeloma - are incredibly impressive.”
Dr Searle continued: "Using the drugs on their own, we are seeing responses in over two thirds of patients who have no standard treatment options left.
NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London
PA
"And when using the drugs in combination, we are seeing responses in over 90 per cent of patients."
She added: "These drugs are a huge breakthrough in this type of cancer, allowing patients without standard treatment options to achieve remission, in many cases for months or years.
"When the drugs are used alone, they achieve a remission lasting one to two years in most patients.
"Used in combination with other myeloma drugs, it is likely that responses and the effect on life expectancy will be even longer."
A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward
PA
Blood cancer has been noted as a disease which is particularly hard to control.
Medical professionals warn it often leads patients to feel very sick as it impacts their immune system.
Patients with myeloma used to survive for three to five years.
However, recent data suggested half of patients are still alive after 10 years.
New myeloma cases total around 6,000 in the United Kingdom every year.
