Killing cancer like the common cold

CNN ^ | 12/08/2013 | By Elizabeth Cohen,

[SeekAndFind]

Nick Wilkins was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 years old, and when the cancer kept bouncing back, impervious to all the different treatments the doctors tried, his father sat him down for a talk.

John Wilkins explained to Nick, who was by then 14, that doctors had tried chemotherapy, radiation, even a bone marrow transplant from his sister.

"I explained to him that we're running out of options," Wilkins remembers telling his son.

There was one possible treatment they could try: an experimental therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He asked his son if he understood what it would mean if this treatment didn't work.

"He understood he could die," Wilkins says. "He was very stoic."

A few months later, Nick traveled from his home in Virginia to Philadelphia to become a part of the experiment.

This new therapy was decidedly different from the treatments he'd received before: Instead of attacking his cancer with poisons like chemotherapy and radiation, the Philadelphia doctors taught Nick's own immune cells to become more adept at killing the cancer.

Two months later, he emerged cancer-free. It's been six months since Nick, now 15, received the personalized cell therapy, and doctors still can find no trace of leukemia in his system.

[Danette]

Cancer sucks.

I am sorry for the loss of your girlfriend.

[combat_boots]

I am sorry for your loss.

[Danette]

I wish my dad never got chemo....then he might not have gotten the pneumonia from his weakened system. He had cancer in the lining between his bladder and prostate. There were spots in his abdomen and neck lymph nodes. The last scan he had 3 weeks prior to death showed the cancer hadn’t spread from the May scan. My dad was 81 years old and was a health nut. Riding bike, hiking, and swimming every day. We are still in shock.

[Hot Tabasco]

came across these two finds after my father’s death.

Herbal "cures" rely on the desperation of the dying and almost all of them are nothing but cash cows for the sellers.........

[Nowhere Man]

So bittersweet, reading about this now, after the love of my life died from breast cancer this past January.

You're not alone I lost my mother to inflammatory breast cancer three weeks ago tonight. B-( I feel the same as you, but there is nothing we can do but hopefully this will help others out along with us, God forbid, if we have to face it.

[Nowhere Man]

BTW, sorry for your loss.

[Nowhere Man]

In her last month, when I could no longer give her the care she needed and she was moved to hospice, she gradually lost her mental capacity to the point where she began hallucinating, no longer knew my name or her own, lost the ability to move her right arm and her legs, and finally her ability to speak altogether.

Yeah, same thing with Mom. She was generally lucid but sleepy in the last two weeks of her life. I was late seeing her on the last Saturday of her life, my Blazer's electrical system went out as I turned the key and I have to fix the battery cables and clean the terminals. I told her why, I had to fix my truck and she asked "how much did it cost?" I told her "nothing, fixed it myself." She was relieved. Still with the brain mets, she something asked the same question twice hours later and I just played along. She passed three weeks ago tonight, the last day, she was in a coma. I'm glad I said my goodbyes, I'm sure she heard me and I left to feed the cats and a few hours later, she passed away. B-(

[Maceman]

I am so sorry for your loss, and wish you peace.

[Tired of Taxes]

I’m very sorry to hear what happened. For my dad, the surgery is what caused a complication and debilitated him, leaving him too weak to receive chemo. We looked into alternative treatments then, but no place would take him soon enough. The cancer spread everywhere, but, in the end, he did finally receive one light chemo treatment because he wanted so badly to try something. All in all, he lived a mere six months after diagnosis. We were in shock, too.

My first chemo treatment put me in the hospital for a week. Looking forward to the day when researchers come up with a better treatment.