Miracle treatment for Leukaemia saves dying Australian boy
HE is the little boy who should be dead. A year ago, Sebastian Bargo was dying from stage four Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. But he is alive today thanks to modern medical advancement.
NSW
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THERE are many medical miracles but Sebastian Bargo is hard to beat — the little boy given a death sentence by cancer who became the first Australian child to be cured by a treatment so cutting edge, it’s almost science fiction.
A year ago, Sebastian, now six, was dying from stage four Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, or ALL. Chemotherapy had failed and a bone-marrow transplant also failed.
But an American hospital was pioneering an immunotherapy treatment called Car-T Cell that was his only hope.
In an Australian first, Sebastian’s white blood cells were removed and sent to Philadelphia’s Children’s Hospital where they were engineered to hunt down and destroy his cancer.
“We went over last December and he had an infusion of the cells. It took only minutes but the T-cells had been taken months before,” his mum Dasha said.
Sebastian was very ill for three weeks after the infusion as his rebooted immune system fought the cancer — but then he started to get better.
“It was our last hope, they wanted to do another transplant here but that only had a 30 per cent chance of working,” Ms Bargo said.
“With the Car-T cells treatment, they gave us odds of 93 per cent. Now he is perfect, like a normal child.”
The Sunday Telegraph reported last month that researchers are recruiting children and adults who have failed standard treatment for ALL to trial the Car-T cell immunotherapy in Australia through the Westmead Institute of Medical Research.
Paediatric oncologist Dr Luciano Dalla-Pozza said the trial would offer hope.
“Clearly the most spectacular thing is that immunotherapy offers genuine hope for those adults and children who we had little left in the cupboard for. It has a way to go, it’s early days, but to get these results so early on is really encouraging,” Dr Dalla-Pozza said.
However, while the treatment kills the leukaemia cells, it also kills B-cells.
The immune system has T-cells that attack infected cells and unusual growths like cancer and B-cells that attack invading bacteria, viruses, and toxins.
Sebastian requires monthly infusions of B-cells to maintain his health but it’s a small price to pay to be alive and in remission from cancer.
“We would be naive to think in the process of destroying cancer cells there would be some legacy but we hope it is only temporary,” Dr Dalla-Pozza said.
It’s early days but I anticipate it will become frontline therapy in the future, when we are sure it has long-term results.”
Sebastian qualified for the Australian Medical Treatment Overseas Program, who funded the therapy.
Sydney Children’s Hospital Oncologist Professor David Ziegler was Sebastian’s doctor.
“He had been given our most potent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant but his leukaemia was eventually incurable. Before this treatment, we would have said there is nothing more we can do, but now he is now completely well with no detectable cancer. it feels like we are entering a new era in treating leukaemia and other cancers,” Prof Ziegler said.