Doctors Used This Teenage`s Own Cells to Cure Her Leukemia—but They Almost Killed Her Very first
Courtesy Don Collins E mma Collins was fourteen when her parents began to notice something wasn`t right with the typically vigorous teenage. Her father, Don Collins, tells Reader`s Digest: “Emma was feeling tired and had very low energy at school. After a few days of noticing this, we had her blood tested.” Collins resumes, “Later that night, the hematology lab called our house directly and told us to go to the hospital instantly. We took her in, and they confirmed our worst fear: Emma had leukemia.” Emma was diagnosed with pre B acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a quick growing form of leukemia that starts in the B cells of bone marrow. Approximately eighty to eighty five percent of children diagnosed with ALL have a version that originates in B cells.
Shocked and heartbroken, Emma and her parents faced treatment options that included grueling rounds of chemotherapy. Collins recalls, “Emma`s treatment was three intensive rounds of chemotherapy, along with another medication called Sprycell. She was hospitalized at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario for over six months.” For the Collins, watching their daughter fight to remain strong through the treatments was the most difficult.”The lowest point for my wifey and I was, observing the gradual worsening of her health. She lost her hair, became incapable to walk, and had constant infections that led to four ICU stays. She had very close calls with death,” Collins explains. The Collins never gave up the belief that the next treatment would be successful, however their hopes were repeatedly dashed. Collins says, “Of course, we kept hoping that the next round of chemotherapy would work, and when they all failed we were crushed. We were told that her chances of surviving another round of chemotherapy were utterly low, and it would likely yield the same negative results,” he says. Patients with any cancer diagnosis should know these seven hopeful cancer statistics.
Left with no other viable chemotherapy treatment options, the Collins considered clinical trials conducted at Children`s Hospital of Philadelphia . One of these trials was the CAR-T cell therapy, a fresh type of stem cell therapy with proven success in achieving remission for patients with leukemia. Doctors collect and then modify a patient`s own immune cells so that they recognize the cancer cells as an invader and climb on a fight. Next, the modified cells are injected back into the patient to attack the cancerous cells. One serious drawback is that the treatment can also cause a potentially fatal immune reaction called cytokine release syndrome. While the reaction can be managed with medication, the patient can still feel lousy during treatment.
Courtesy Don Collins Desperate to save their daughter, Collins and his wifey agreed to attempt the CAR-T therapy. He says, “With the news that all other treatment had failed, we kept up hope that this fresh treatment would help.” Emma began to showcase signs of cytokine release syndrome only hours after the initial treatment; her fever spiked to one hundred eleven degrees, and she was nauseated. Her utterly elevated fever caused her to slip into a coma-like state, and she became unconscious for a brief time, until doctors could stabilize her temperature.
Content resumes below ad
A few days later, the Collins family received the stunning news: “On the fourth day after treatment, the doctor came into our room and told us Emma was in total remission,” Collins says. “At very first, it took a minute to drown in—I was stunned but overcome with joy. We all sat together and laughed, cried, and went through all of the emotions that come with this kind of fantastic news.” Fresh medical developments are occurring at a rapid rhythm with advancements in technology, and latest studies have also shown that good cholesterol, or HDL, can lower the risk of cancer.
Max Gomez, PhD, CBS News Medical Correspondent, and co-author of the upcoming book, Cells Are The Fresh Cure, believes that cell therapy will be utilized in the future to treat many chronic conditions, like Alzheimer`s disease and type one diabetes. Cancer is only the beginning, Dr. Gomez told Reader`s Digest. “We as humans have the hubris to think we can create drugs to heal people—and we have—but we`ve got nothing on the human cell.” According to Dr. Gomez, not only do the modified cells used in CAR-T therapy kill cancer cells during initial treatment, but they also create memory cells that proceed to fight any cancerous cells that reappear once treatment has finished. “This will entirely switch leukemia treatment for children and adults—and it already has,” he says.
As for Emma, now 16, she`s living the life her parents hoped she would. “She`s doing good in remission, and has caught up in school, even achieving honor roll. She just received her driver`s license, and she works out often to regain her balance and strength, something she lost from chemo,” Collins says. He adds, “She`s getting back to a normal teenager`s life. Our greatest hope for Emma is to love life and be blessed and strong. We want her to look back on this and tell her grandchildren of the many superb things she has achieved, including never losing hope and living through cancer.” For patients that have reached remission there are several beneficial ways to care for yourself, mentally and physically after the cancer is gone.
Courtesy Don Collins Emma`s parents want other families facing a similar battle to know that however it`s fresh, attempting CAR-T therapy can be worth the risk. He says, “We absolutely encourage patients to proceed with this treatment. We know it can be scary as it is fresh, but we went from no hope to remission in four days—that should give everyone hope. Hope means everything to a family going through a cancer diagnosis.”