7 Year Old Girl Beats Acute Lympoblastic Leukemia: Emily Whitehead's Immunotherapy Story
At only seven years old, Emily Whitehead was facing a life-threatening recurrence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. #PatientStories
Emily's cancer resisted chemotherapy treatments. Determined to save their child's life, her parents, Tom and Kari Whitehead, enrolled their daughter in a clinical trial of a new treatment designed to turn Emily's immune system into a powerful weapon against cancer. The treatment, called CAR T cell therapy (CAR stands for "chimeric antigen receptor" and T cells are a type of immune cell that kills virally infected, damaged, or cancerous cells), had never been tested in a child before.
The treatment worked, and Emily's cancer went into complete remission immediately. As of December 2013, more than 18 months since her treatment, Emily remains cancer-free. Her story made national headlines and helped focus public attention on the potential for cancer immunotherapy to transform cancer treatment as well as the need to continue supporting lifesaving cancer research.
Watch the video to learn more about Emily's story and how the Cancer Research Institute is helping to advance research that is leading to treatments like the one Emily received.
You can also learn more at http://cancerresearch.org/news....-publications/our-bl
Special thanks to the Whitehead Family, Dr. Carl June, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, Chris Weddle and Abby Drey of the "Centre Daily Times," and The Philadelphia Award.
Established in 1953, the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing our immune systemโs power to control and potentially cure all cancers. Our mission: Save more lives by fueling the discovery and development of powerful immunotherapies for all types of cancer. To accomplish this, we rely on donor support and collaborative partnerships to fund and carry out the most innovative clinical and laboratory research around the world, support the next generation of the fieldโs leaders, and serve as the trusted source of information on immunotherapy for cancer patients and their caregivers. https://www.cancerresearch.org
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