Essential
- Lizzie Spear, a 56 -year -old Englishman, discovered that she suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukemia after consulting for simple pockets under the eyes.
- This disease is characterized by a transformation of lymphocytes become cancerous and replace the normal cells of the bone marrow.
- Thanks to a daughter’s stem cell transplant, then very expensive CAR-T therapy, she could be neat and is today in remission.
“My daughter Lowri said to me: “Mom, I think you should go see your general practitioner, you don’t seem very good”says Lizzie Spear, a 56 -year -old Englishwoman, at Mirror. I had pockets under the incredibly large eyes, which I attributed to fatigue, because I was sleeping badly. I even told Lowri that I was not going to waste the doctor with an aesthetic problem, but she convinced me to go. ”
A stem cell transplant to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia
The advice of his daughter certainly saved her life. In February 2021, Lizzie Spear went to consult her attending physician for the relatives she had before her. The practitioner prescribes blood analyzes, whose results seem disturbing. The patient must then go urgently to the hospital to make additional examinations, including a biopsy of the bone marrow.
With this additional information, doctors precisely identify the pathology of which Lizzie Spear is reached: acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This is a “Potentially fatal disease in which cells which are normally transformed into lymphocytes become cancerous and quickly replace normal cells of bone marrow“Indicates the MSD manual. Patients of all ages can be affected by this pathology, but it is more frequent in children.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia can be treated in different ways. Lizzie Spear has tried almost all options: chemotherapy, immunotherapy and a stem cell transplant. The latter consists in taking undifferentiated cells from a healthy person to inject them to that suffering to replace the cells damaged by the disease.
“The doctors said Lowri was half compatible and, given the gravity of my condition, it was our best hope”, Details Lizzie Spear. Her daughter Lowri immediately accepted. In September 2021, stem cells were transferred from the girl to the mother. The solution works and the disease leaves the family a little respite, just a few months …
Therapy at 500,000 pounds sterling
In November 2023, acute recurrent lymphoblastic leukemia. Doctors then opt for a new treatment: CAR-T therapy, which consists in modifying, in the laboratory, the patient’s T lymphocytes so that they attach to cancer cells and destroy them.
“It was not easy because it is necessary to obtain the approval of the Committee of Cancer Drugs Fund [un organisme du National Health Service (NHS), le système de santé publique du Royaume-Uni, qui finance les médicaments contre le cancer] And there is no guarantee to obtain it, a infusion costs 500,000 pounds sterling ”she said. While waiting for the answer, the state of health of Lizzie Spear deteriorated until temporarily losing the sight of the right eye and having to move in a wheelchair. But in February 2024, the approval was finally given and Lizzie Spear was able to benefit from the treatment … Today, it is in remission.