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There are plenty of heartbreaking stories about chemotherapy failing, but once in a while, that failure can actually have a happy ending. That\u2019s what happened to 52-year-old Judy Perkins, who found herself a few months from death as breast cancer spread throughout her body.<\/p>\n
She had a mastectomy and had her lymph nodes taken out when she was first diagnosed, but a decade later, her cancer had returned with a vengeance in the form of a stage 4 lump. Chemotherapy and hormonal therapy both failed to have an impact, and the cancer spread to her liver and chest. With three months left to live, she says she was grateful for the life she\u2019d enjoyed but wanted to try an experimental treatment for the sake of her family.<\/p>\n
The treatment is pioneered by the National Institutes of Health<\/em>\u2019s Dr. Steven Rosenberg. It involves finding the few immune cells in a patient\u2019s body that can see the genetic mutations in cells that trigger cancer and turning them into \u201ccancer killers\u201d.<\/p>\n After studying Perkins\u2019 immune cells, Dr. Rosenberg found the white blood cells that possess this power. They were then extracted and grown in large quantities in a lab. An incredible 90 billion of them were injected back into her body, along with immune-boosting drugs. It\u2019s a highly personalized treatment that can be thought of as a living drug. As Dr. Rosenberg puts it, \u201cThe very mutations that cause cancer turn out to be its Achilles heel.\u201d<\/p>\n Within ten days, Perkins could actually feel the difference. She had one large tumor in her chest that she could touch, and she started to feel it getting softer and smaller. Two and a half years later, Perkins is cancer-free and Dr. Rosenberg believes her cells are still working to keep that cancer at bay.<\/p>\n The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site.<\/em><\/p>\n If there\u2019s one downside to all this, it\u2019s that it doesn\u2019t work for everyone. When it works, it\u2019s nothing short of miraculous, but it\u2019s only effective in 15 percent of the patients who try it. Two friends with breast cancer who Perkins had sent to Dr. Rosenberg died despite getting the treatment. (Related:\u00a0Breast cancer prevention alternatives – know your options before leaping.)<\/p>\n The odds aren\u2019t great, but it\u2019s something that could set the stage for a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. Dr. Rosenberg says it\u2019s time for oncologists to acknowledge that cancer is unique to each patient and that their treatments must also be unique to their specific case and body. Essentially, a new drug needs to be developed for every patient.<\/p>\n His findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine<\/em> and although he admits it\u2019s not ready to be used commercially, it could pave the way for treatments that could help a vast number of cancer patients in the future. Cancer experts who weren\u2019t involved in the experiment consider it a significant advance. Writing in commentary, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research\u2019s Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi called it \u201can unprecedented response in such advanced breast cancer\u201d and said we\u2019re on the \u201ccusp on a major revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins is now thriving. She just wrapped up a 1,200-mile kayaking journey around Florida and went rafting down the Grand Canyon. Not only did the therapy save her life, but she\u2019s got the energy and good health needed to enjoy it. There\u2019s a lot that Dr. Rosenberg and his team can learn from Perkins\u2019 results. If researchers can find a way to improve the treatment\u2019s success rate, countless lives could potentially be saved.<\/p>\n Read more news about medical breakthroughs at Cancer.<\/p>\n Sources for this article include:<\/p>\n NYPost<\/p>\n NBCNews<\/p>\n BBC<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are plenty of heartbreaking stories about chemotherapy failing, but once in a while, that failure can actually have a happy ending. That\u2019s what happened to 52-year-old Judy Perkins, who found herself a few months from death as breast cancer spread throughout her body. She had a mastectomy and had her lymph nodes taken out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[129,955,956,433],"class_list":{"0":"post-6247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthy-lifestyle","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-cure","10":"tag-experimental","11":"tag-helping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Treatment isn\u2019t always effective, but it shows lots of promise<\/h2>\n