H.I.V. cures Cancer

Emily Whitehead:

Girl whose cancer was 'cured' by HIV



Link to Story...

A seven-year-old girl has become the first child leukaemia patient to be successfully treated by doctors using a disabled form of the virus that causes Aids to reprogramme the immune system.

When chemotherapy failed to work for Emily Whitehead, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, she underwent a new experimental treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

It involved tricking her immune system into fighting the cancer cells - and, six months later, Emily remains in remission.

She was one of a dozen people to have had the treatment. Three adults also had complete remissions, with two of them now clear of cancer for more than two years.

Four other adults showed improvements but did not go into complete remission. One child improved but then relapsed, and the treatment did not work for two adults.
The patients each had millions of T-cells removed. Using the disabled form of HIV, these were modified to attack cancer cells before being put back into their systems.

The patients became very ill with feverish symptoms before recovering, and Emily almost died. She described the experience as "really, really scary" - but has recovered enough to go back to school.

Researchers said the treatment, which costs about $20,000 for each patient, was in the early stages but they hope it could ultimately replace risky bone marrow transplants.

Dr Stephan Grupp, Director of the Centre for Childhood Cancer Research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS: "We've treated the first couple of patients and we've been blown away by the results. They've been very exciting.
"We collect cells of the immune system from a patient, so we use the patient's own cells. We put in a new gene in those cells that makes the cells go after cancer cells and then we put those cells back in the patient."

He added: "We don't know until we treat more patients and we have longer follow up, whether there's a potential for curing these patients.

"Previous patients got sick, but it wasn't clear at the time whether it was due to the T-cells or an infection.

"Now we know the main reason they were sick was the cells. But now we can intervene. She (Emily) taught us."

Her father Tom Whitehead, from Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, told the Philadelphia Inquirer: "In the war against cancer there is no one in front of Emily."

Awesome. Now thanks to that title now people will contract HIV on purpose to cure their cancer.

What I'd like to know is how the virus was used to modify the t cells and make them identify cancer cells as foreign?

ren wrote: What I'd like to know is how the virus was used to modify the t cells and make them identify cancer cells as foreign?

Genetics

I saw this story on TV, and it sounds promising. But I can't help but think about the movie "I Am Legend"...

It's too bad all the cures seem to practically kill the patient before helping them. I wonder how long it will take to refine it?

:laugh: Vergere...how scary would that be?

regular cancer treatment (chemo) is basically a poison they hope will kill the cancer before it kills the rest of you...

i've seen first hand how HIV can devestate communities - and i've lost my own grandmother to cancer,
this is what science should be looking at - not making designer babies for people who want to control their childre hair/eye colour, or find bigger and better ways to destroy the world

But there's no money in the curing of anything...the pharmaceutical companies, like any other drug dealer, rely on repeat business to stay profitable...if they cure everyone, where's the repeat business? No, they won't spend money on research that will cure diseases, the only profitable ways to spend money are researching treatments, and cosmetic surgery...although if the fashion industry ever "turns their backs on" the pharmaceutical industry, all that cosmetic surgery research will go right out the window, too.

I do hope that you are wrong Alluvius.

For compassion to win over profits would be a great triumph for humanity.

Yes it would. That would be fantastic and I would love to live to see that day. But I think that if you're honest with yourself about who corporations are, you'll know that today is not that day.