Sharjah24 – Reuters: A U.S. patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, researchers reported on Tuesday.
That's according to research presented at a medical conference on Tuesday.
The patient is a middle-aged, mixed race woman who got treatment to tackle acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that starts in the bone marrow.
For that she received a stem cell transplant. However, the donor was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS.
And since then, her HIV has been in remission for over a year without the need for antiretroviral therapy.
She was also the first to be treated using umbilical cord blood, a newer approach that may be more accessible to a wider range of patients.
The case is part of a larger study following 25 people with HIV and cancer treated with an umbilical cord stem cell transplant.
The study suggests that an important element is the transplantation of HIV-resistant cells.
The two prior cases of males cured of HIV also used stem cells.
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