Two and a half years ago, 52-year-old Judy Perkins was given only three months to live.
The engineer living in Florida was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 and underwent a mastectomy.
A decade later, the cancer returned more aggressively than before, and after undergoing seven different types of chemotherapy and having her lymph modes removed, doctors found tumours the size of fists in her chest and liver.
Doctors gave her only three months to live.
It was then that Perkins met Dr. Steven Rosenberg at the National Institute of Health who had been working on an experimental treatment.
According to the New York Post, Rosenberg closely studied Perkins’ immune cells, “finding those white blood cells capable of detecting genetic mutations and fighting cancer.” Those cells were then extracted and grown in a lab, before 90 billion of them were injected into Perkins’ blood stream.
“I think it had been maybe 10 days since I’d gotten the cells, and I could already feel that tumour starting to get soft,” Perkins told CBS.
Scientists have described this injection harvested by Perkins’ immune system a promising world first, with the Institute of Cancer Research stating: “This fascinating and exciting study in a single breast cancer patient provides a major ‘proof-of-principle’ step forward, in showing how the power of the immune system can be harnessed to attack even the most difficult-to-treat cancer.”
These trials have been administered on patients with liver, cervical and bowel cancer in the past, with mixed results. Perkins knew when she volunteered for the experimental therapy that there would be risks, and NBC reported that two of her friends who underwent the treatment, died.
Perkins considers her recovery a “miracle”.
“I am beyond amazed,” she told The Telegraph UK. “I have now been free of cancer for two years.
“Experts may call it extended remission but I call it a cure.”
Perkins now leads an active and fulfilling life.
Professor Frances Boyle, the director of the Patricia Ritchie Centre for Cancer Care and Research at Sydney’s Mater Hospital, told ABC, “This is absolutely precision medicine. But it’s not a drug. It’s a technique done in a laboratory.”
Essentially, she explained, “They were able to give the patient’s own immune system a major boost.”
Top Comments
So doctors are beginning to acknowledge that our own immune system can fight off cancer. Something the natural health industry has known and practiced for decades.
It doesn't make them as much money as chemo though, does it.
If only doctors would get out of the way, we'd be so much healthier.
Oh, honey. "Mainstream medicine" (AKA evidenced based practice) has been investing millions of dollars into researching immunotherapy in cancer now for decades. Indeed, it has now become quite common in certain cancers, most notably melanoma and lung (with development forging ahead in other streams).
It may also interest you to know that immunotherapy - the type that works, rather than the placebos peddled by charlatans - actually costs more than most chemotherapy, but we don't get any more money for prescribing it, regardless of what your conspiracy theory friends have told you.
Let me get this straight.
The only thing needed to fight off cancer is our own immune system? And the “natural health industry” has been practicing this for decades? How exactly does an industry “practice” a patients own immune system? And how did the “natural health INDUSTRY” come into existence if our own bodies do all the work anyway? Does that mean that all the supplements, modalities and just the general industry is a sham? How can a “natural healer” charge a client for their services, if the clients body is doing all the work and needs no help anyway?
But you’re totally fine with saying that chemotherapy is purely a money-making venture. You’re implying that medical intervention isn’t needed, so how do people become cancer patients in the first place? Do doctors secretly congregate in the break room and giggle about the latest sucker that they’re about to put through such a gruelling treatment for no reason? Because that will make them money? But the “natural health provider” who sells ground up stuff in mass produced packets isn’t pocketing anything for their... “help”? Please.
Immunotherapy has been around for a while. It is not something that works for everyone. Bear in mind this is just one success story of a woman beating cancer. The reality is there will be many who have tried this treatment or other immunotherapy trial but it has not been a success or the side effects have been life’s threatening, thus a cancer patient has had to stop treatment or go onto another treatment. I know of one friend who was on an immunotherapy trial for stage 4 melanoma. While it was working the side effects were affecting her heart, so she had to stop treatment. Just because immunotherapy appears to be more ‘natural’ it doesn’t mean that it is without its problems. While this article is a good news story, the reality is that every cancer patient responds differently to treatment.