Fighting cancer with HIV

[Matthean]

Doctors Take A Long Shot And Inject HIV Into Dying Girl. The Reason Why Will Amaze You. (http://www.upworthy.com/long-shot-doctors-inject-fatal-virus-into-dying-girl-this-100-true-story-will-amaze-you)

Nothing like taking one of the deadliest diseases and using it to kill something else.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Wow. So it is possible in a way that HIV may in a roundabout way, be a cure for cancer/

[Kodos]

Immune System, Loaded With Remade T-cells, Vanquishes Cancer - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13gene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

Found this related article.

[Chief Rum]

Immune System, Loaded With Remade T-cells, Vanquishes Cancer - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13gene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

Found this related article.

Hmm, this was two years ago. Any updates on how this treatment has gone or advanced?

[Kodos]

More recent article.

Cell Therapy Promising for Acute Type of Leukemia - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/health/altered-t-cell-therapy-shows-promise-for-acute-leukemia.html?pagewanted=all)

[miked]

Yeah, this isn't really giving them HIV. It's reprogramming their immune cells with a stripped version of the virus, instead of recognizing normal t-cells (like HIV does), it recognizes a protein involved in cells with leukemia. It's fairly amazing therapy and one that I've had my students model for HIV actually (using a dummy cell that recognizes HIV to "trap" the virus). I'd say any therapy that can take somebody from the brink of organ failure to remission in 3 months should get all the money it needs to expand clinical trials. Hopefully, the NIH can fund a larger trial (or the drug company that makes it).

[cougarfreak]

Hope they kick leukemia's ass with this. RIP my mom from 1992.

[Chief Rum]

I read an article yesterday on Yahoo that had a very similar concept for eradicating breast cancer. It used a non-HIV virus to do it, too.

[BYU 14]

A very interesting concept, I will have to read more on it later, but this certainly seems like it has potential.

[MizzouRah]

This is amazing.

[sterlingice]

The medical research that will come out of the next 30 years from the Baby Boomers fearing their own mortality will be staggering.

(I don't really want to derail this for politics but that's what anyone advocating "Health Care Reform" is up against. We're at 16% of GDP now but I think there are a lot of people with a lot of money who would pay much more than 20% just to give them a few more years on this mortal coil. So that money is there to be had, tho it's very questionable as to whether it's being spent effectively or just being bilked by the latest generation of snake oil salesman dressed up as insurance or hospital execs).

SI

[Poli]

We started supporting a family dealing with pediatric cancer last summer. We heard about this family through an old school friend and reached out to help financially. We've since developed a huge heart for kids with cancer. We've gone on to help about a dozen families in the past year in some form or another. I only pray that nothing like this happens with Davin.

I sincerely hope this leads to a cure.

[Galaxy]

The medical research that will come out of the next 30 years from the Baby Boomers fearing their own mortality will be staggering.

(I don't really want to derail this for politics but that's what anyone advocating "Health Care Reform" is up against. We're at 16% of GDP now but I think there are a lot of people with a lot of money who would pay much more than 20% just to give them a few more years on this mortal coil. So that money is there to be had, tho it's very questionable as to whether it's being spent effectively or just being bilked by the latest generation of snake oil salesman dressed up as insurance or hospital execs).

SI

This is pretty cool:

A Homely Rodent May Hold Cancer-Fighting Clues - NYTimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/science/a-homely-rodent-may-hold-cancer-fighting-clues.html?_r=0)

[Matthean]

Mayo Clinic trial: Massive blast of measles vaccine wipes out cancer | Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/259155541.html)

Or a mass dosage of measles vaccine.

[stevew]

uh....this isn't a good idea.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/sRctxZT-a1A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[terpkristin]

Funny thing is, I could see the anti-vax community taking the "Measles vaccine kills blood cancer" news to prove their point that the vaccine is toxic.

Sigh.

/tk