Aggregated News
Doctors say a man in California who contracted blood cancer while living with HIV is in remission from both potentially fatal illnesses thanks to a treatment they are hailing as remarkable and encouraging.
Paul Edmonds is only the fifth-known person in the world confirmed to be in remission for both acute myelogenous leukemia and HIV, according to a recent news release from City of Hope, the national cancer institute that provided his medical care.
Edmonds, of Desert Hot Springs, California, underwent a treatment in which he received stem cells with a rare genetic mutation that makes people who have it resistant to acquiring HIV. The stem cell transplant came from a donor with the rare homozygous CCR5 delta mutation.
At 68, Edmonds became the oldest person to overcome blood cancer before then also achieving HIV remission, City of Hope said. City of Hope also said that of the five known people who overcame both illnesses, Edmonds had had HIV the longest, about 31 years.
The findings on Edmonds were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine...
