In Girl’s
Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia
Grady,
Denise. "In Girl's Last Hope, Altered Cells Beat Leukemia." The
New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Dec. 2012. Web. 01 Jan. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/health/a-breakthrough-against-leukemia-using-altered-t-cells.html?pagewanted=all>.
This article describes a 7 year-old
girl’s amazing recovery from leukemia with the use of altered T-cells. The
girl, Emma Whitehead, had been ill with acute lymphoblastic leukemia since 2010
(when she was 5). She was given an experimental treatment that used a disabled
form of the virus that causes AIDS to reprogram Emma’s immune system
genetically to kill cancer cells. The treatment almost killed her,
but she emerged cancer-free, and now she has not relapsed in the past 7 months.
The treatment was developed by Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania.
The treatment has been tested on ten other people: three adults have been
“cured,” four adults have improved, one child improved then relapsed, and in
another two the treatment didn’t work at all. The mixed results show that it
isn’t 100% effective, but the results are promising. Novartis, a drug company,
is giving the team $20 million to build a research center to bring the
treatment to the market. To perform the treatment, doctors remove millions of
the patient’s T-cells and insert new genes that enable the T-cells to kill
cancer cells. The technique employs a disabled form of H.I.V. because it is
very good at carrying genetic material into T-cells. The new genes program the
T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn
malignant in leukemia. The altered T-cells are then dripped back into the
patient’s veins, and if all goes well they multiply and start destroying the
cancer.
This treatment has the potential to
become a major cure for leukemia in patients with no other choice. Dr. June
hopes the new treatment will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation, an
even more arduous, risky and expensive procedure that is now the last hope when
other treatments fail in leukemia and related diseases. Producing engineered
T-cells costs about $20,000 per patient — far less than the cost of a
bone-marrow transplant. Scaling up the procedure should make it even less
expensive as it gains momentum. Still, the research is in its early stages, and
many questions remain. The researchers are not entirely sure why the treatment
works, or why it sometimes fails. If they find that the treatment is not cost
effective or hurts patients more than it cures them, it may not have any
lasting impact on leukemia treatment. The altered T-cells do destroy healthy
B-cells as well as cancerous ones, leaving patients vulnerable to certain types
of infections, so it may not be the best
treatment that can be developed.
I believe that the author did a very
good job explaining the treatment and its implications. However, she sometimes
explained things in too great detail, while leaving other questions unanswered.
At times, her progression of ideas was confusing as well.. She did do a good
job explaining how the treatment works. Most scientific articles describing
treatments are difficult to understand and follow, but her explanation was
clear and comprehendible.
8 comments:
Overall I thought Malika did a fantastic job with the summary of this article. I really liked how she explained the way that the treatment works. I felt it made the article accessible to all who were curious about this miracle. I also really liked that Malika put the effects of the treatment on the lives of those with leukemia. When she explained how the treatment would be more cost efficient than bone marrow transplants, I felt that there was more substance to the article than if she had simply just written about Emma Whitehead’s recovery. I thought Malika’s questioning of the article (about the effectiveness of the new treatment) gave us a broad perspective on what is really happening. I really liked how she accomplished this, which also gave me a deeper understanding of the complicated nature of leukemia.
I felt that Malika could have used simpler language in some cases, as it was (at times) hard to follow. There were certain terms such as B-cells, which I was not familiar with, and I felt that this slightly distracted my attention from the rest of her summary. I also felt that Malika skimmed over the case surrounding Emma Whitehead specifically, and perhaps a little bit of insight as to why her treatment seems to be working better than in other cases.
I really enjoyed reading this article and Malika’s summary, and learned that there is this promising new possible cure for leukemia. I had not heard of Emma Whitehead’s story before, or that this treatment was being developed as a possible cure. This really is an amazing miracle that could change the future of medicine as we know it.
Were getting their folk’s. It’s only 2013 and was taking risks in medicine to treat the very ill, near-death patients. This article really sparks innovation for others and also gets you reading intensively. If a 7-year-old girl was at the verge of death due to Leukemia and was treated with a disabled form of the virus to survive, then I think were fighting with the right kind of fire with fire. It also stated that, because the doctors used this virus that caused AIDS to reprogram the patient’s immune system, and while at it, kill cancer cells then solving cancer might not be so far ahead of us. I think Malika did a fantastic job introducing the topic. It caught my attention and kept me away from stopping myself to read the article. I also think she did an effective job explaining how the treatment would be cost efficient than the replacement of the bone marrow. The only thing I wanted improvement on was more information certain terms that were listed throughout the article. Overall, I think this article rather threw me some curveballs but I did end up catching them and understanding the concept. If this were to continue on, then who knows the miracle of solving and curing cancer will happen (hopefully soon).
Were getting their folk’s. It’s only 2013 and was taking risks in medicine to treat the very ill, near-death patients. This article really sparks innovation for others and also gets you reading intensively. If a 7-year-old girl was at the verge of death due to Leukemia and was treated with a disabled form of the virus to survive, then I think were fighting with the right kind of fire with fire. It also stated that, because the doctors used this virus that caused AIDS to reprogram the patient’s immune system, and while at it, kill cancer cells then solving cancer might not be so far ahead of us. I think Malika did a fantastic job introducing the topic. It caught my attention and kept me away from stopping myself to read the article. I also think she did an effective job explaining how the treatment would be cost efficient than the replacement of the bone marrow. The only thing I wanted improvement on was more information certain terms that were listed throughout the article. Overall, I think this article rather threw me some curveballs but I did end up catching them and understanding the concept. If this were to continue on, then who knows the miracle of solving and curing cancer will happen (hopefully soon).
Maxim Izotov
Article review 1/30/13
(Malika Lawrence on Leukemia treatment)
Overall, I enjoyed reading Malika’s review. She did a great job of describing the process of this treatment. As she went into detail, I could understand the science behind it more and more. Second, I witnessed a great comprehension of the effects that this treatment has on the world as we know it. This was very important to me because it kept me interested in the subject, since the review was not crafted solely around facts. Last but not least, I thought it was great that Malika mentioned other possible effects of this “treatment,” since it is very important to know other possible outcomes of the operation.
In my opinion, however there were two parts that could be revised in this review. First, I would have appreciated a more thorough background on Dr. June, since all I could make out of the text is that he was a professor at Pennsylvania. His area of expertise and the research process remain unknown to me. Second and last, I was looking for time periods in which the treatment will be developed. In other words, “in 10 years,” or “next month.” This is important because “soon” can mean a lot of things.
The topic was very appealing to me. As more and more time, money and effort gets put into cancer research, a lead might have finally been found, and the sooner the lead gets investigated, the more lives will be saved.
I thought Malika did a very through job in explaining this story. It was as if we had read the articles ourselves. I really liked how she explained how the HIV cells were used to cure cancerous cells, and in some cases cure them permanently. I also really liked how Malika compared the HIV with the T-cell to the bone marrow transplant. It was interesting to see how much cheaper this method is and how much more effective it is. She seemed to use the bone marrow transplant as a push toward this new form of cure. Finally, I thought Malika’s criticism of the article helped me see how much Malika had simplified the article so that we could easily understand the topic and the new treatment.
I would have liked it if Malika explained what the T-cells were because I do not know much about biology that that aspect confused me. I would like to understand how these cells cured the caner cells better because the biological terms are not easy to understand. I thought it would have been nice if Malika explained what a bone marrow transplant is. I know of them from a TV show, but I am sure I don’t have that correct of information about them. I would have liked to know the amount of people that die from bone marrow transplants.
I thought this was overall a touching article. It is sad to know that so many people die from diseases that cannot be cured, especially children, but now there is a possibility of life. This chance, although it may be painful, is well worth it because now Emma Whitehead has her whole life ahead of her and will get to experience all the same experiences in life, both good and bad.
Matt James
Comment
I thought Malika did a very thorough summary of what this article is about. I really liked the depth at witch she explained things such as the way the treatment actually works, giving us the vital information surrounding this scientific feat. I also enjoyed how she actually questioned the article, making us think abut how we can make this miracle a common occurrence i the near future. Slightly along the same lines, I also liked how Malika related the article to real life by thinking about how it would affect the lives of those with leukemia.
In a way to improve this article I would ask her to tone it down a little bit. At times the review went to deep into the scientific process making it hard to follow, as we all don’t take Bio.
I learned of an entire new way that doctors are trying to fight and prevent cancer through this article, hopefully this may lead to a more definite cure.
I read the article by Malika and I would like to say first that she did a really good job and I really liked the article. One thing I liked about it was how Malika talked about the treatment and the results it had on other patients. Another thing I liked was how she talked about how much money this all costs. I honestly had know idea how much people with cancer would have to pay to get treatment and how much it cost to research it. Lastly I liked how she discussed bone marrow transplant, which is something they do today, and ho this could possibly replace that. One thing I did not like was I would have liked to know more about what “acute lymphoblastic leukemia” actually is. Another thing I disliked was that she only talked about the little girl for a little. I would have liked to know more about her. I found it shocking that people are actually this close to a cure. It is amazing that one day we might actually be bale to cure cancer.
This is a very fascinating story and I’m glad that I was able to learn and read about it. I thought it was so interesting how Emma was able to form the virus that causes AIDS to reprogram Emma’s immune system to kill her cancer cells. This treatment was a risk that she was willing to take but turned out positively in the end. Emma was one of the ten that Dr. Carl June tested on and all patients the treatment didn’t work for some. It is amazing that it worked on Emma. I find it amazing that that the mixed 100% effective, but the results are promising. I also like learning about how the doctors remove the T-cells and how the doctors insert new genes. However I am a little confused as to why AIDS needs to be formed in order to cure this disease. I have many unanswered questions and I would like to read more about this process and hopefully my questions will be answered. I also wished Malika talked about the T-cells because I am unfamiliar with this part of biology and it was hard to follow along. I loved reading this summary of the article because I find it amazing that these doctors were able to give Emma a chance to experience good and bad things in life.
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