More sickle cell patients might benefit from bone marrow transplant

SAN DIEGO — The sickle cell group has for the previous few days been buzzing with information of the first-ever authorised gene therapies for the devastating illness. In the meantime, researchers on the American Society of Hematology assembly on Tuesday are reporting advances in a cheaper and extra established technique confirmed to treatment sufferers: bone marrow transplant.

This strategy has been round for many years however required sufferers to have a well-matched donor and endure a hearty dose of chemotherapy, ruling out transplant as an choice for the overwhelming majority of sufferers. In a mid-stage trial, nevertheless, researchers stated sickle cell sufferers who got a gentler course of chemo and an infusion of half-matched cells fared nicely: They’d much less ache, and 95% of members have been alive two years after transplant and solely 7% of recipients skilled a extreme response brought on by transplanted immune cells attacking their new residence.

The information comes as researchers are nonetheless processing the Meals and Drug Administration’s landmark approval of two cutting-edge sickle cell therapies, one made by Vertex Prescription drugs and CRISPR Therapeutics and the opposite by Bluebird Bio. These medicine have worth tags of $2.2 million and $3.1 million, respectively. By comparability, a bone marrow transplant prices about $200,000 to $400,000, and, the research’s authors argue, might be carried out on a broader swath of sufferers.