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Cancer patient in remission after treatment with form of HIV

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    Girl thriving after nearly dying from leukemia

  • Duration 3:25
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What he -- -- -- the -- doctors say cancer almost killed a sixteen year old a six year old girl.

Until they -- a very different kind of treatment.

They gave her a disabled form of HIV the -- virus that causes aids.

And now that young girl named Emma has been cancer free for nearly seven months.

And researchers say this could really fundamentally change the way we treat the crippling cancer known as leukemia.

That's -- after the procedure earlier this year with us now one doctor -- develop this experimental treatment.

Doctor David Porter is director of blood and marrow transport transplantation.

At the -- center for advanced medicine in Philadelphia doctor good afternoon thank you.

Good afternoon HIV hat hat -- what does this do.

Well if you think about it one of the ways that HIV works is by getting into cells into -- themselves.

It's very very good at getting into cells he HIV virus itself makes them sick and in fact kills the immune cells so.

Well what my colleagues have actually done.

Is to take the parts of the HIV virus that are good -- it getting into cells get rid of the parts that make the cell sicken or kill the cells.

And replace that with the molecules that can that can then target the cells to fight leukemia.

So uses the good parts without the bad parts Abby gets bad part out.

Tom in other -- the scientists who do this have molecular biology techniques there are.

Enzymes in the lab that actually can just chop out the bad parts.

Displace the good parts back together.

And you can actually put in new information.

So that the HIV virus instead of making proteins to make the -- set.

Make proteins to make the cell kill the -- sells -- getting in there that's the key.

Breaking the lock -- that is the cell getting in and then working against.

Actually more working -- that rather than working against using the HIV virus to work with the cell.

To do good things rather than bad things -- I don't have to begin to talk here about what leukemia has done to so many families and how many lives it has taken.

This sounds like on the surface doctor it could be an extraordinary thing -- dial it back -- if necessary.

Well I think you're right down leukemia.

Is a devastating disease there is nothing good about it.

I think the good news is that over the last decade there have been development of any new therapies.

Many patients with leukemia are -- today when they never -- curable.

And that is the good news.

There are still many to many patients children and adults alike who have leukemia that is incurable.

-- effective therapies.

And stop working after a time.

Many of these patients can be cured with a very very risky and intensive therapies like bone marrow transplant.

The bone marrow transplants are quite intensive they they have enormous risk they're very dangerous.

Many patients don't have a donor to even have a transplant.

Even if they could and there's -- this desperate need to try and find.

Better therapies.

Two to treat and cure patients with leukemia who otherwise have no options when doctor David Porter I know how thankful much of our video viewing audience is good luck to you and all your colleagues thank you.

Well thank you very much all right doctor David Porter -- this from from Atlanta.

Big develop.

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