Emma Whitehead with her mother, Kari, in Philipsburg, Pa., Dec. 8, 2012 (©Jeff Swensen/The New York Times/Redux)

Dying girl now cancer-free after 'breakthrough' AIDS virus experiment

12/10/2012

The last thing you'd expect to be a cure for cancer is AIDS. And though researchers are still far from reaching that milestone, an experiment with a disabled form of the virus that causes the disease has given them great hope. Last spring, Emma Whitehead, a 6-year-old Pennsylvania girl, was near death. Desperate, her parents signed her up for an experimental treatment never before tried on a child. Less than two years later, she's completely cancer-free. The theory is the HIV virus reprograms the immune system to kill cancer cells. Other patients have had mixed results using the same process, but it's being called a "breakthrough" that, with further tweaking, may revolutionize leukemia treatment. [Source]

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