It stops tumours from making the proteins they need to live and grow

The drug is made from the leaves of a plum yew tree found in parts of Asia

A Chinese herbal medicine has blasted leukaemia into submission.

Seriously ill patients given homoharringtonine, a drug made from the leaves of the plum yew tree, made remarkable recoveries.

Some had already been treated unsuccessfully with conventional drugs.

All were suffering from a hard to treat form of acute myeloid leukaemia – an aggressive cancer of the white blood cells.

Seriously ill leukaemia patients given homoharringtonine, a drug made from the leaves of the plum yew tree, made remarkable recoveries, a study found

Twenty of the 24 patients treated with homoharringtonine, plus a conventional medicine that boosted its effect, went into remission – meaning all signs of their cancer had gone.

One 76-year-old woman remained in remission for over a year, despite being given the herbal drug for just five months.

Summarising the results, an editor of the journal Science Translational Medicine, said: ‘Acute myeloid leukaemia is a difficult disease to treat under the best of circumstances.

‘The treatment showed promising results which in a trial which included elderly patients and those who have failed all previous treatments, paving the way for further development of this drug.’

The drug is made from the leaves, and sometimes the bark, of Cephalotaxus harringtoni, the Japanese, or Chinese, plum yew.

Twenty of the 24 patients treated with the herb, plus a conventional medicine that boosted its effect, went into remission – meaning all signs of their leukaemia had gone

The coniferous shrub is named after the Cephalotaxus harringtonia, the Earl of Harrington, who was one of the first to grow the plant in a European garden.

The drug stops tumours from making the proteins they need to live and grow.

The University of Hong Kong researchers said Homoharringtonine has been used for decades, in mainland China, for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia.