UK to review gene therapy work amid leukaemia fears:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The UK's Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (GTAC) has today (October 3 2002) announced that it is to review gene therapy research, after a French patient undergoing an X-SCID trial developed leukaemia. The French trial is based at the Necker Hospital in Paris. There are two X-SCID trials underway in the UK, based at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. The GTAC has stopped short of halting these, but has announced that it will monitor developments, review similar trials and issue advice accordingly. In its 2000 annual report, the GTAC reported a high-degree of success in trials for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). That year there was a three-fold increase in UK-based gene therapy trials (see Clinica No 990, p 3). Worldwide there are 636 completed, ongoing or pending gene therapy trials.