Doctors use HIV to cure Utah man's leukemia

A Utah man’s leukemia is in remission, thanks to an experimental therapy. Doctors injected him with HIV-infused white blood cells, which were programmed to recognize, target and kill the cancer.

he learned about researchers at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they’ve spent two decades developing a breakthrough experimental treatment that kills cancer

the CTL019 cells, which he refers to as "serial killers," stay dormant in the body unless the cancer returns.

In 2012, seven-year-old Emma Whitehead became the first child to undergo T-cell immunotherapy... ...Two months after the April procedure, testing revealed there was no sign of cancer in the girl’s body

There were a total of 30 acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients involved: five adults ages 26 to 60, and 25 children and young adults ages 5 to 22. Six months after being treated, 23 of the 30 patients were still alive, and 19 of them have remained in complete remission

Source

Don't know what to say really... Whether or not there are other unofficial cures, this particular work seems like it could be the beginning of the end for cancer.

Cool. There was an episode of Grey's Anatomy last year that kind of touched on using the characteristics of HIV to do other things, and that got me wondering, so this is very interesting to me. Found this too...thought you might want to read it for more info: How Notorious HIV Is Being Hijacked To Tackle Cancer

a reply to: trollz

That would actually be pretty fitting for human history. Things that used to kill us end up being harnessed to save us. Lightning, animals, fire, etc.

In a few decades, we may look upon HIV with reverence and fondness.

a reply to: Cuervo

Yeah...exactly. Usually it's the other way around, with things that could be used for good being weaponized or abused instead. This kind of turns that paradigm around.

a reply to: trollz

If you have the money, connections or both you already have access to medical advances not available to the general public.

Try a Google search sometime for "cancer cure study" and check out how many cures have been discovered over the past 2 decades vs. the number of actual products on the market.

We've known exactly what causes aging and how to reverse it, even done so in public lab tests on mice (and many other species in private) going back to the 1970s. We already have access to "immortal" genetic sequences, cells and molecules including certain types of cancer cells.

We mapped the human genome in the 80s and were able to reverse map the production of proteins back in the 70s as well.

We could all live hundreds of years minus terminal condition or injury right now but the answer why these advances all go on the shelf or into black projects is obvious - population. At this point the only hope for humanity to access these advances is the coming colonization of other planets. Some of us might still be here to see that day come without being "special" but it really is a race to the end or a race to the beginning now.

So will these people suffer a miserable death in five years from HIV now? Did it just prolong their death a few years and they will die of Aids? I guess I need to read the article.

Very nice.

Definitely going to keep up with this information.

Hmm is that like bringing in snakes to get rid of the mice? and now you have a snake problem?

a reply to: rickymouse

T-cells, types of white blood cell, were taken from Emily and infected with modified HIV. The virus obediently transferred its DNA into Emily’s T-cells, but scientists had also deleted the DNA which would normally allow it to replicate, removing the possibility that Emily herself could get HIV from the treatment. This modified HIV carried DNA that allowed the T-cells to track down the leukaemic white blood cells inside Emily’s body and kill them. Emily remains disease free at the time of writing, over two-and-a half-years after treatment.

Yeah, I guess you should.They don't give the people HIV.

originally posted by: rickymouse
So will these people suffer a miserable death in five years from HIV now? Did it just prolong their death a few years and they will die of Aids? I guess I need to read the article.

It's a modified virus, harmless.

ETA: Oddly enough leukemia would allow for them to be "cured" of HIV, just as HIV is allowing them to be cured of leukemia.

originally posted by: ecoparity
a reply to: trollz

If you have the money, connections or both you already have access to medical advances not available to the general public.

Try a Google search sometime for "cancer cure study" and check out how many cures have been discovered over the past 2 decades vs. the number of actual products on the market.

We've known exactly what causes aging and how to reverse it, even done so in public lab tests on mice (and many other species in private) going back to the 1970s. We already have access to "immortal" genetic sequences, cells and molecules including certain types of cancer cells.

We mapped the human genome in the 80s and were able to reverse map the production of proteins back in the 70s as well.

We could all live hundreds of years minus terminal condition or injury right now but the answer why these advances all go on the shelf or into black projects is obvious - population. At this point the only hope for humanity to access these advances is the coming colonization of other planets. Some of us might still be here to see that day come without being "special" but it really is a race to the end or a race to the beginning now.

What was it Steve Jobs died of again?
What about Steve McQueen?
And what about this list below?

www.kantrowitz.com...

I think you're living in a dreamworld.

a reply to: Pardon?

There is a simple explanation for that.

This sounds really promising. Programming a virus to only target cancer and laying wait for it to come back or more to show up, and continually killing only cancer. I hope they don't bury this.

a reply to: trollz

That's the good news. The bad news: Doctors use HIV to cure Utah man's leukemia.

a reply to: ScientiaFortisDefendit

Why is that bad news?