Doctors say a man in California who contracted blood cancer while living with HIV is in remission from both potentially fatal illnesses thanks to a treatment they are hailing as remarkable and encouraging.
Paul Edmonds is only the fifth-known person in the world confirmed to be in remission for both acute myelogenous leukemia and HIV, according to a recent news release from City of Hope, the national cancer institute that provided his medical care.
Edmonds, of Desert Hot Springs, California, underwent a treatment in which he received stem cells with a rare genetic mutation that makes people who have it resistant to acquiring HIV. The stem cell transplant came from a donor with the rare homozygous CCR5 delta mutation.
At 68, Edmonds became the oldest person to overcome blood cancer before then also achieving HIV remission, City of Hope said. City of Hope also said that of the five known people who overcame both illnesses, Edmonds had had HIV the longest, about 31 years.
The findings on Edmonds were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. City of Hope said his case demonstrates how older adults with blood cancers who undergo reduced-intensity chemotherapy, then get a stem cell transplant with HIV-resistant donor cells, may be rid of HIV.
“It is possible to achieve remission from HIV even at an older age and after living with HIV for many years,” said Jana Dickter, a clinical professor in City of Hope’s infectious diseases division. “As people with HIV continue to live longer, there will be more opportunities for personalized treatments for their blood cancers.”
In a YouTube video, Edmonds said he hopes his experience “gives hope to people with HIV”, adding: “I want to remember all those we lost.”
He had previously told City of Hope that he felt as if he had been given a death sentence when diagnosed with HIV and Aids in 1988. He underwent HIV antiretroviral therapy, which brought levels of the virus down to undetectable levels, but it stopped short of curing him of the disease.
That began to change for Edmonds when he happened to also develop acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML. Part of his treatment for that blood cancer involved receiving donated stem cells, which had the extra benefit of carrying a genetic mutation linked to HIV resistance.
No more than 2% of people have the mutation, according to ScienceAlert. But one of those people was a donor match for Edmonds. City of Hope connected Edmonds to that person through its blood stem cell and bone marrow transplant program.
Edmonds received bone marrow and blood stem cells from the donor in 2019. The process left his bone marrow and blood stem cells completely replaced by those of his donor.
after newsletter promotion
His doctors said Edmonds has since shown no signs of having either leukemia or HIV. They consider him cured of leukemia because his last cancer treatment – the transplant itself – was more than five years ago.
He also has not taken antiretroviral therapy for HIV in nearly three years, leaving two years to go before doctors would consider him cured of HIV as well.
A key reason why Edmonds may have tolerated the transplant so well is that, beforehand, he underwent chemotherapy treatments of reduced intensity. That strategy was aimed at lowering his chances of complications after the transplant, his doctors said.
Edmonds said he was “extremely grateful” for his treatment at City of Hope’s clinical research hospital in Duarte, California. Duarte is located about two hours from Desert Hot Springs, requiring that he and his husband live in a hotel intermittently and rely on the help of longtime friends.
“Many … doctors, scientists, nurses, supportive care professionals and others made it possible for me to be cured of leukemia and in remission for HIV,” Edmonds said. “I can’t thank them enough.”