First children with cancer to begin treatment with revolutionary CAR-T therapy in England

The first children in the UK to receive a game-changing personalized therapy for cancer will start treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London this week, NHS England announced yesterday.

A second center, the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, is also ready to start treating children with a rare form of leukemia, while a third, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is expected to join the program next month.

In September, NHS England struck the first full access deal in Europe on Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), which can potentially cure some children with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) where other treatments have failed, enabling the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to recommend the treatment for entry into the reformed NHS Cancer Drugs Fund last week.