First News - Finding a cure for cancer

New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

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Cure for cancer

New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
New treatment for children and adults with leukaemia (photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Scientists are delighted after a new treatment for children and adults with leukaemia has effectively cured them of cancer.

Two people treated with the CAR-T-cell therapy have remained free of cancer 12 years after their treatment. Cancer cells were destroyed within months of treatment starting, and they haven’t come back.

Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania, who has led work on the therapy, said: “We can now conclude that CAR-T cells can cure patients with leukaemia.”

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The treatment works by adapting T-cells, which are a type of white blood cell that protect us from viruses and certain cancers. But some cancers are very good at evading them. So CAR-T cells are designed to recognise and destroy cells created by leukaemia and lymphoma, two types of blood cancer.

The therapy is being used in the UK on children and young adults with leukaemia and adults with certain types of lymphoma.

This study gives scientists hope that other patients will respond equally well.

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YOUR NEWS

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STRICTLY LIVE TOUR

By Lucy Brint

Strictly Live Tour visits BirminghamStrictly Live Tour visits Birmingham
Strictly Live Tour visits Birmingham

In January, me and my mum went to see the Strictly Come Dancing The Live Tour in Birmingham.

The show started with an incredible group number, which Janette came out on stage to host. Dancers John and Johannes kicked it off with their fantastic Pirates of the Caribbean pasodoble. It scored a perfect 30.

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The show was wonderful and my top two dances were probably Tilly Ramsay and Neil’s choice of Revolting Children from Matilda The Musical and Rose and Giovanni’s choice of Symphony by Clean Bandit. The winners were Rose and Giovanni, and they completed an amazing final number.

I loved all the group numbers, but a particular favourite was Johannes’s Ballroom. I really enjoyed the show and would rate it an 11/10!

DIARY DATES

FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT

FEBRUARY 21 to MARCH 6

Fairtrade means workers’ rights, safer conditions and fairer pay, to make quality, ethically-produced products.

WORLD THINKING DAY

FEBRUARY 22

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A day of international friendship, celebrated by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It is an opportunity to speak out on issues that affect girls and young women.

WOW!

THE world's largest cut diamond, The Enigma, has sold for £3.16m (photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)THE world's largest cut diamond, The Enigma, has sold for £3.16m (photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
THE world's largest cut diamond, The Enigma, has sold for £3.16m (photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The world’s largest cut diamond, The Enigma, has sold for £3.16m ($4.3m)! Little is known about where the diamond originally came from, although it’s around a billion years old and is thought to have been carried to Earth by an asteroid.

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