Need to know
A personalised leukaemia treatment that could saves the lives of people with an aggressive form of deadly cancer is scheduled to be rolled out on the NHS in a major breakthrough
11:44, 27 Nov 2025
Scientists sampling a patients blood amid a new 'cure' for a deadly form of blood cancer(Image: PA)
Everything you need to know about the new Leukaemia ‘cure’
- A "cure" for the deadly form of blood cancer leukaemia is being rolled out on the NHS in a huge hope for people with the devastating condition.
- The CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy - also known as 'obe-cel' - is a breakthrough immunotherapy that has successful been trialled in the UK.
- This therapy involves taking patient's T cells, immune cells, and modifying them in a laboratory so they can recognise and target cancer cells - before returning them to the body as "living medicine".
- Eligible people will have two doses of the CAR-T therapy 10 days apart, and the treatment will be delivered at a few specialist centres across the country.
- This incredible new procedure will be used to help fight an aggressive form of cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is found in the blood and bone marrow.
- Eligible patients will have to be aged 26 and over and have had B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia which has returned and not been improved by other forms of treatment.
- Clinical trials saw more than three quarters of patients go into remission after the treatment - as well as experiencing fewer side effects - and half of those patients showed no signs of detectable cancer after three and a half years.
- Around 800 people get diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia each year in the UK, and the NHS said this potentially life-saving treatment could be given to 50 people annually.
- This incredible treatment has been researched, developed and manufactured in the UK.
- Professor Peter Johnson, NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer, praised the "cure" and said: "CAR T-cell therapies are helping people with blood cancers live longer, healthier lives. This cutting-edge therapy has shown real promise in trials and could give patients with this aggressive form of leukaemia a chance to live free from cancer for longer – and, for some, it could offer the hope of a cure."