Two patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia have achieved 10-year remissions after treatment with chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, a ground-breaking report shows.

The US researchers say such a level of persistence and duration had not previously been observed with the ‘living’ anti-cancer therapy.

“We demonstrate that individual CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T-cells/CAR T-cell clones expanded, cleared the leukaemia, and maintained activity for such a long time,” said study author Dr Jan Joseph Melenhorst (PhD), from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“This means that the memory function of immune cells, the very same principle at the heart of vaccinations against common and emerging viruses etc., apply to CAR T-cells also.”