Suicide Gene Therapy Trial

Overview

Bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation is used to treat a wide range of life-threatening conditions. T lymphocytes carried in the graft have powerful beneficial effects and play a vital role in the eradication of leukaemia and in fighting infection, but can also damage healthy tissues and cause graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). To safeguard against GVHD, the investigators propose modifying T cells to encode a 'switch' so that they can be eliminated if problems arise. Children receiving half-matched (haploidentical) transplants from a parent are most likely to benefit from this strategy. At present these patients receive blood stem cells from a parent, but the T cells are removed because the risk of serious GVHD is unacceptable. This means that they are much more likely to suffer from life threatening infections or experience a relapse of leukaemia. The investigators want to use gene therapy to produce "safe" T cells which can be used to strengthen the transplant and prevent these serious complications.

Conditions

Interventions