Thursday, March 28, 2024

HIV Patient in Remission After Stem Cell Transplant

*The clinical research center City of Hope has announced that a 66-year-old patient living with HIV received a stem cell transplant and has been in remission since 2019.

The elderly man lived with HIV for more than 30 years and had also battled acute myelogenous leukemia. But after receiving a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor, the patient is reportedly in remission from both diseases, according to The American Journal Of Managed Care

“The case offers hope for older patients with HIV and blood cancer that a transplant from a donor with a specific genetic mutation could make remission possible,” the outlet writes 

The City of Hope notes on its own website that “the patient received three different therapies to get him into remission before receiving the transplant. Most patients achieve remission after one therapy.”

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“This patient had a high risk for relapsing from AML [acute myeloid leukemia], making his remission even more remarkable and highlighting how City of Hope provides excellent care treating complicated cases of AML and other blood cancers,” said City of Hope hematologist Ahmed Aribi, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Leukemia.

Here’s more from AJMC:

The patient, who is the fourth person in the world to achieve long-term remission from HIV, is the oldest person to achieve remission; he also lived with the disease much longer than the 2 other patients who achieved remission, known as the Berlin Patient and the London Patient. A third patient, the Brazil Patient, was in remission for more than 15 months before his viral load once again increased in summer 2020.

The patient was 63 when he was treated with a transplant for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). The unrelated donor had a rare genetic mutation, homozygous CCR5 Delta 32, which allows those with it to resist acquiring HIV. In their statement, City of Hope officials explained how the CCR5 mutation blocks the pathway the HIV virus uses to attach to CD4+ cells and attack the immune system.

“We are proud to have played a part in helping the City of Hope patient reach remission for both HIV and leukemia. It is humbling to know that our pioneering science in bone marrow and stem cell transplants, along with our pursuit of the best precision medicine in cancer, has helped transform this patient’s life,” said Robert Stone, president and CEO of City of Hope and the Helen and Morgan Chu Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair. “The entire team at City of Hope is honored to make a difference every day in the lives of people with cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.”

“We were thrilled to let him know that his HIV is in remission and he no longer needs to take antiretroviral therapythat he had been on for over 30 years,” said Jana K. Dickter, MD, associate clinical professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at City of Hope who outlined the data at the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada. 

Per City of Hope, “Since recovering from his transplant, the City of Hope patient has not shown any evidence of having replicating HIV virus in his body, either in blood or tissue samples.”

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