Emily “Emma” Whitehead was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 5. After her second relapse, the doctors told her family they were out of options to treat her cancer. Looking for a miracle, her parents sought an experimental treatment that had never been tried in a child or in anyone with her type of leukemia. This video explains how the treatment—using Emily’s genetically reprogrammed T cells—successfully killed the cancer cells in her body. Today, Emily is still cancer-free and shares her journey at emilywhitehead.com.
Fighting cancer with T cells
For more on this experimental T-cell therapy, see these articles from the New York Times:
T-cell therapy puts leukemia patients in extended remission
In girl’s last hope, altered immune cells beat leukemia
US clears first 'living drug' for tough childhood leukemia
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