An experimental treatment using bio-engineered T cells has cured a 7-year-old girl of leukemia by "reprogramming" her immune system to attack the cancerous cells in her body. http://bcove.me/2xhhdmut MONDAY, Dec. 10, 2012 — A year ago it looked as if Emily Whitehead, a smart and lively Philadelphia 7-year-old, was facing imminent death. For some time, the young girl had been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive form of the disease that's usually treated with chemotherapy and other long-term drugs. Although she initially responded to standard treatments for her leukemia, Emily continually relapsed, first in October 2011 and then again, in February 2012. "We were told we were down to 48 hours of making a decision, or she could start to have organ failure," said Tom Whitehead, Emily's father in a video filmed by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. So with a glimmer of hope, Emily's parents turned to Children's for what their doctors say is a breakthrough leukemia treatment using a bio-engineered version of the patient's T cells that are custom-designed to multiply rapidly in the patient and destroy leukemia. T cells are lymphocytes, white blood cells that are integral to the immune system's ability to fight off leukemia B cells. Emily's T cells were engineered to "go after cancer cells and kill them," said pediatric oncologist Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in the video. Since Emily was treated in the hospital in April 2011, she has remained cancer- free, and her leukemia is considered to be in full remission. This past June, she returned home, and since then she's been healthy and is back at school. "We've checked her bone marrow for the possibility of disease at two points," said Dr. Grupp. "We checked her three months and now six months after the treatment. She has no disease whatsoever." Added Grupp, "We need to treat a larger number of patients before we understand what the success rate might actually be." The treatment Emily received, known as CTL019 or CART19, was developed ....
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