"Bubble Boy" Develops Leukaemia

One of the boys with no immune system being treated with pioneering gene therapy at Great Ormond Street in London has developed leukaemia according to his doctors. They said they had been braced for this as cancer was an acknowledged risk of this treatment for X-SCID, commonly known as boy in the bubble syndrome. A trial in France of a similar therapy was halted in 2002 after four of eleven children developed leukaemia. So far ten children have been treated at the London hospital.