North-East patients are set to be at the forefront of ground-breaking medical trials that could spell new hope for thousands of leukaemia patients.

Experts say the findings should be helpful in the treatment of acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML), one of the most common forms of leukaemia in adults in the UK.

Patients in Newcastle, Manchester, Southampton and Scotland are expected to be involved.

The project, being carried out at the University of Edinburgh, involves changing the form of laboratory-grown leukaemia cells and using them to prime a patient's own immune system to kill off malignant cells.

If successful, the study could give clinicians a way of destroying residual leukaemic cells which are undetectable by microscope.

Although about 70 per cent of patients with AML achieve complete remission of the disease after chemotherapy treatment, around half of younger patients and the majority of elderly patients will ultimately relapse and die.

Three year post-remission survival rates are about 40 per cent in younger patients and 10 per cent in older patients.

Haematologist Dr Marc Turner, who will head the study, said he was optimistic about the success of the project.

''Relapse after initial successful chemotherapy is caused by residual leukaemic cells which are below a level which can be detected by microscope,'' he said.

''Sometimes, they can cause the disease to restart, and it is much harder to treat the second time around.

''Methods of eliminating this minimal residual disease, such as bone marrow transplantation, can be successful but this form of treatment is only suitable for younger patients who are able to withstand the side effects of the treatment.''

Dr Turner went on: ''However, research work during the past few years has shown that it is possible to grow leukaemic cells in the laboratory and force them to change into a kind of immune cell which can lead to the destruction of leukaemia cells.''

Patients with AML taking part in the study will donate bone marrow or blood cells before undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

If they go into remission, their stored leukaemic cells will be specially cultured and changed into cells which are given back to the patient by injection.

The patients taking part will then be carefully monitored.

The trial is funded by the Leukaemia Research Fund and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.