Fresh hope for thousands of cancer patients

A GROUNDBREAKING therapy that kills off a deadly blood cancer while sparing healthy cells has been discovered by scientists - offering fresh hope to patients.

- By Lucy Johnston SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR

The development could “revolutionise” the treatment of one of the deadliest and fastest-growing forms of the disease - acute myeloid leukaemia - and potentially bowel and prostate cancers too.

AML is diagnosed in nine patients every day - around 3,500 each year, including 100 children.

Until now there has been very little hope of treatment for the condition, which kills around 80% of those diagnosed - and only 22% of AML patients are alive five years after diagnosis.

Around 44,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer and 55,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.