The new treatment developed for the children who need bone marrow transplant spares them from chemotherapy, which can have serious side-effects.

Chemotherapy is presently used to kill the patient's own bone marrow in order to create space for donor stem cells. But chemotherapy can have serious side-effects from hair loss to damage of organs like liver and lungs.

Doctors from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the UCL Institute of Child Health have evolved new treatment which uses antibodies to clear patient bone marrow and make room for donor stem cells. The new treatment doesn’t have side-effects of chemotherapy.

The team of doctors led by Dr Persis Amrolia treated 16 patients with the new treatment, 13 out of these have shown promising results. Data analysis showed that these children have recovered twice quickly as compared to the standard treatment.

The new treatment is a blessing for the children who are too sick to tolerate intensive transplant chemotherapy as the new technique uses antibodies which targets a molecule specific to blood and bone cells leaving other tissues undamaged.

Dr Persis Amrolia said: "The treatment provides a greater chance of allowing these children to grow up to lead normal healthy lives. We didn't see any of the hair loss and sickness normally associated with chemotherapy."