A NEW "wonder pill" pioneered by North-East patients was last night hailed as a revolutionary cure for leukaemia in a move that could change the way cancer is treated forever.

Doctors hope the experimental new treatment - known only as ST1571 - can be adapted to treat a whole host of other cancers.

A third of the patients to receive the drug seem to be completely cured, with no sign of leukaemia.

Early trials involving patients with bowel and lung cancer are said to be "very promising".

Last night, leading doctors called on the Government to rush through supplies of the drug to help treat many of the 800 new cases of chronic myeloid leukaemia seen in the UK every year.

The Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, was the first hospital in the UK to offer the new drug to leukaemia sufferers as part of an international trial.

So far, about 75 chronic myeloid leukaemia patients have been treated by the Newcastle unit.

Although access to the drug trial is restricted, virtually every leukaemia patient who applied to the RVI was admitted.

Instead of having injections of interferon, or enduring a bone marrow transplant, patients just take four pills a day.

The results were yesterday presented to a packed meeting of the world's top blood specialists in San Francisco, US.

Speaking to The Northern Echo from California, Dr Stephen O'Brien, a senior lecturer with Newcastle University's department of haematology, said: "You can feel the excitement here. I think this is a real watershed event in the treatment of leukaemia and has set a new precedent."

While doctors still do not know whether the treatment is a permanent cure for leukaemia, Dr O'Brien said the signs were very good.

The only concern of the Newcastle team - headed by Professor Stephen Proctor - is that the new drug might not be licensed in the UK for several years.

While American leukaemia patients may be able to get ST1571 as early as next summer, it could be 2002 before British patients can get access to the drug.

"I have a real problem with how the European Medicines Evaluation Agency handles this kind of thing and how long they take," said Dr O'Brien.

"They are expected to be six months slower than the American Federal Drugs Agency, which is unacceptable," he said.

Dr O'Brien said his own clinic "is just wall-to-wall with patients" who would benefit from ST1571.

Patient, Darren Scrine, 30, says he is feeling much better after getting a place on the Newcastle trial.

"It is amazing. You just take four tablets a day and suddenly your leukaemia is gone! It makes you think that one day women will go to their doctor, get diagnosed with breast cancer and get a prescription," he said.

ST1571 was first given to a patient in the UK in September 1999. It was developed in Switzerland by the drug company Novarites, and the first clinical trials took place in the US.

About 4,000 people in Britain have chronic myeloid leukaemia and doctors see up to 800 new cases every year.