FDA Panel Recommends Approval Of Novel 'Gene Therapy' For Leukemia

A Food and Drug Administration panel has recommended approval of a novel cancer treatment that uses a disabled form of HIV to reprogram the body's own white blood cells. The treatment, known as CTL019, was developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and licensed to the drug company Novartis, which wants to use it to treat a rare form of leukemia affecting children and young adults under the age of 25.

Here & Now's Robin Young talks to Dr. Stephan Grupp, director of the cancer immunotherapy program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Grupp led Novartis’ global trial of the treatment.

Robin also speaks with Tom Whitehead and his daughter Emily Whitehead, who was the first child ever given this treatment as a 6-year-old in 2012.