An Italian team has made a breakthrough in leukemia research raising fresh hope of treating the blood cancer better. The team has shown the effectiveness of treatment with lab-engineered cells dubbed CARCIK on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children and adults.

Using the new cells, six out of seven treated patients showed a complete disappearance of the cancer, a success rate of 86%. The clinical study was carried out by researchers from Fondazione Tettamanti labs, coordinated by the children's blood cancer centre of the Fondazione Monza e Brianza per il Bambino e la Mamma, with the collaboration of Bergamo's Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital.