THE FOCUSED MIND » medical breakthroughs http://blog.inferentialfocus.com Tue, 02 Jun 2015 16:15:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.35 Science 1, Leukemia 0 http://blog.inferentialfocus.com/index.php/2012/12/science-1-leukemia-0/ http://blog.inferentialfocus.com/index.php/2012/12/science-1-leukemia-0/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:07:03 +0000 http://blog.inferentialfocus.com/?p=272 Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported this week that they had cured a 6-year-old girl of recurrent leukemia that chemotherapy had failed to treat. The doctors altered a strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), so that instead of giving the girl AIDS, it would reprogram her immune system DNA to fight leukemia on  Continue Reading »]]> Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported this week that they had cured a 6-year-old girl of recurrent leukemia that chemotherapy had failed to treat. The doctors altered a strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), so that instead of giving the girl AIDS, it would reprogram her immune system DNA to fight leukemia on its own. The procedure cost $20,000 – far less than the cost of a bone marrow transplant. (New York Times)

 

In eFocus 702 earlier this year, we noted how researchers are increasingly using viruses as “vectors” to reprogram patients’ DNA to cure hard-to-treat diseases, and we noted that in many such treatments, patients’ own immune systems are being prodded to treat the disease, rather than using powerful drugs. As 6-year-old girls start being saved in experimental versions of such treatment, we wonder if an era of increased medical efficiency and effectiveness is at hand.

 

 

 

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