Khaberni - In a notable medical development, a 28-year-old British man became the first patient in England to receive a revolutionary blood cancer treatment through the National Health Service, following official approval for its use against a common type of leukemia.
The young man, Oscar Murphy, described the new treatment, known as "CAR-T" or "obe-cel", as "amazing and like something out of a sci-fi movie", due to its reliance on genetically modified living cells from his own immune system.
What is the treatment?
CAR-T treatment involves extracting immune cells known as T-cells from the patient, then reprogramming them in the lab to precisely recognize and attack cancer cells. After multiplying these cells by the millions, they are returned to the patient's body to act as a "living drug" that directly targets the cancer.
The disease and diagnosis
Murphy suffers from acute lymphoblastic leukemia of the B-cell type (B-cell ALL), a rapidly growing blood cancer where the bone marrow produces large numbers of immature cells that fail to fight infections, leading to the displacement of healthy cells. This type is the most common among ALL cases, and is most often diagnosed in children.
Murphy was diagnosed with the disease in March 2025, and underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant from a donor in July of the same year. However, in November, he was informed that the cancer had returned.
First application outside trials
Although CAR-T therapy has been used in the NHS for several years to treat certain types of leukemia and lymphoma, its expansion to include adults with B-cell ALL was only recently approved, and Murphy was the first to benefit from it outside the scope of clinical trials.
Murphy received the first dose of the treatment on January 2nd this year at the Royal Manchester Hospital, one of the specialized centers chosen by NHS England, followed by the second and final dose ten days later, with patients receiving two doses via intravenous.
Promising results
Estimates suggest that about 50 patients will benefit from this treatment each year, which health officials have described as a "real hope for recovery".
During clinical trials, 77 percent of patients entered a remission phase after treatment, with no signs of cancer in half of them after 3 and a half years, and the treatment also granted patients on average an additional 15.6 months of life.
Professor Peter Johnson, the national clinical director for cancer at the NHS, said that this advanced treatment has shown very encouraging results and could give patients a longer chance to live cancer-free, and even offers some a real hope for complete recovery.
Murphy, a car dealer from the city of Bury, said, "The leukemia I suffer from is very fast and requires an quicker response to stop it. Now we have this solution," and added, "It might sound fantastical, but if this treatment can definitively eliminate cancer using my own body cells, that is truly amazing."
Revolution in blood cancer treatment
For her part, Dr. Eleni Tholouli, the hematologist treating Murphy's case, said that the disease is usually very aggressive in adults and often does not exceed a life expectancy of 6 to 8 months in many cases.
She added, "With this treatment, we can give patients additional years of life, and possibly a complete recovery. It is a very significant achievement and truly revolutionizes how we deal with this type of cancer."
Who is eligible for the treatment?
CAR-T therapy will be available to patients aged 26 years and older with B-cell ALL who have either relapsed or not responded to previous treatments, after approval by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Patients in Wales and Northern Ireland will need to travel to England to receive the treatment, while it has not yet been approved in Scotland.
