Revolutionary gene therapy offers hope for untreatable cancers

UK teenager is first person in the world to receive base-edited' cells that could transform cancer medicine

Scientists in the UK have used a revolutionary new type of gene therapy to treat a young patient with relapsed T-cell leukaemia. The administration of the technique - a world first - has raised hopes it could soon help to tackle other childhood cancers and serious diseases.

Alyssa, from Leicester, had undergone chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in a bid to alleviate her leukaemia, without success. With no further treatments available, prospects for the 13-year-old were grim.