Irish patients help develop more successful leukaemia treatment

Irish patients have helped develop a cancer drug that offers a 90% survival rate to those with certain forms of leukaemia.

The international trial has also shown that the drug, Ibrutinib, can be used as an alternative to chemotherapy.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found Ibrutinib to have better rates of survival for patients with the most common form of leukaemia than conventional therapy.