A treatment that uses a patient's own immune cells to fight leukemia has received approval in the United States, the first time any gene therapy has done so.
The move is seen as opening a new era in the fight against cancer.
The breakthrough treatment is made by Novartis and is called Kymriah, or tisagenlecleucel.
This type of immunotherapy is known as Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell or CAR-T cell therapy.
It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for children and young adult patients up to 25 years old with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The FDA described the approval as "a historic action" that would usher "in a new approach to the treatment of cancer and other serious and life-threatening diseases".
Studies have shown that 83% of patients responded to the one-time only treatment, achieving remission within three months.
The treatment is not a pill or a form of chemotherapy. It uses a patient's own immune cells, called T-cells, along with white blood cells.
These cells are removed from a patient, sent to a lab, reprogrammed, and then returned to the patient.
