Both HIV and Cancer are serious health issues and it is very much difficult to survive if a person is suffering from both. However, this miracle happened in the US with a 66-year-old man who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988.
In a major breakthrough, the City of Hope in the US used stem cell transplant therapy from an unrelated donor to treat leukemia in this senior patient and reportedly became successful in curing his cancer as well as HIV.
The announcement related to the same was made recently at the International AIDS Conference held in Montreal, Canada. The City of Hope is the largest cancer treatment and research organization in America and is also one of the prominent research centers working on diabetes and other serious illnesses.
This is the fourth patient in the world treated by the City of Hope to go into HIV remission without needing to continue with regular antiretroviral therapy (ART) for more than a year.
The patient has been taking antiretroviral therapy for the last more than 30 years but he does not need to take it now that his HIV has gone into remission.
The City of Hope officials said that the patient was given reduced-intensity chemotherapy before conducting stem cell therapy because it prepares the patient’s body for the transplantation and cuts down the complications that may be caused due to this procedure.
While this is heartening news for HIV patients, it should be noted that the procedure is not going to be made available everywhere anytime soon. Moreover, it is not a practical way of treating HIV and may not be applicable to everyone.
Nevertheless, over the years breakthroughs in the field of medicine have helped HIV patients to survive and enjoy life normally with proper precautions and medications.