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Camden New Journal - HEALTH by TOM FOOT
Published: 21 August 2008

Joanna Scott with her daughter Tara

‘I am excited and a little bit nervous – but I’m a pioneering spirit!’

Fashion designer is the world’s first recipient of life-saving leukaemia treatment

A FASHION designer from Kentish Town is the world’s first leukaemia patient to undergo a life-saving treatment invented by researchers at the Royal Free Hospital.
Joanne Scott, 53, was injected with “natural killer cells” taken from her 21-year-old daughter Tara.
The special blood cells were activated in the Royal Free laboratory before the transplant, in a pioneering move that doctors believe will kill the cancer.
Ms Scott said: “There was nothing else that could be done. But then my doctor suggested this trial and I jumped at it.
“I feel very excited about it all. Part of me is a bit nervous, but I am a pioneering spirit! Tara was excited by it too as she has always wanted to do something to help me. I felt that I have given her life and now she is giving me life.”
She added: “I really feel that I can think about the future again, whereas I was saying that maybe I shouldn’t organise this or that as I might die next week.
“I feel a lot more confident and more hopeful now.”
Ms Scott was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in 2005.
She was treated with four courses of chemotherapy but kept suffering relapses.
Royal Free researchers had developed a treatment to help patients in remission. By transfusing the cells from Ms Scott’s daughter, they were able to create an immune system that kills any tumour cells left after the chemotherapy treatment.
Tara, 21, who is studying anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, said before the cells were taken she “lived like a monk” trying to make sure she was as healthy as possible.
“I felt if I ate one wrong thing or had one glass of wine it would affect my cells and then it would be my fault if something went wrong.
“Before I felt like it was the last chance saloon but when I could help I felt like I was part of mum’s battle.”
The Royal Free team, which is funded by the Leukaemia Research Fund for more clinical trials, have named the cells “Tumour-activated NK” (TaNK).
Joanne’s clinician and principal investigator of the study, Dr Panos Kottaridis, said: “We hope this form of immunotherapy will enable us to better understand the way modern treatments work and might act as a platform for future studies in this and other types of cancer. We hope for positive results, but this is an experimental treatment and we will need enough data before we can draw meaningful conclusions.”
The trial is being sponsored by University College London.

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