He received one type of chemotherapy for seven days and another type of infusion on the first three days. In November 2018, Edmonds started his first round of chemotherapy, what’s known as a 7 + 3. to perform transplants in 1976.įurthermore, a 2016 study published by Joseph Alvarnas, M.D., a professor with City of Hope’s Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, found that an autologous stem cell transplant should be considered the standard of care for patients with HIV-related lymphomas as long as the patient’s medical team also considered how it would manage any infections and other complications. More than 18,000 transplants have been performed at City of Hope since it became one of the first cancer centers in the U.S. We can deal with complications, recognize complications early on and change therapies if needed.”Ĭity of Hope is one of the highest volume transplant centers in the nation and the largest in California. ![]() “A successful transplant can only happen in a place where the procedure is done all the time, such as City of Hope. “The fact that Paul achieved remission from his difficult-to-treat leukemia and went through transplant successfully without complications speaks to City of Hope’s expansive medical experience,” Aribi said. Healthy stem cells from the donor are then given to the patient.īut giving chemotherapy to a patient such as Edmonds, who was also taking HIV antiretroviral therapy, can be challenging because chemotherapy can temporarily diminish a patient’s immune system.Ĭity of Hope, however, had prior experience in providing both successful stem cell and bone marrow transplants to people with cancer and HIV. This is done so that cancerous cells are eradicated. Transplant patients must first go into cancer remission, which often requires intense chemotherapy. But, in an exciting twist, Edmonds’ medical team let him know that they would also search the Be The Match registry for a donor who carried the rare HIV-resistant genetic mutation. Aribi, M.D., assistant professor with City of Hope’s Division of Leukemia in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, let Edmonds know he would need a stem cell transplant from a donor to beat the cancer. Shortly after starting his care at City of Hope, Edmonds developed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). His doctors suggested he might seek treatment at City of Hope. ![]() Older HIV patients, because they’ve had weak immune systems for so many years, often develop leukemia and other blood cancers.Īt the time, Edmonds and his partner of 31 years, Arnold House, were planning to move to the Palm Springs area from Sonoma County. In August 2018, Edmonds was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, which eventually developed into acute myeloid leukemia. “And I want to remember all those we lost.” A Cancer Diagnosis “A big reason I want to tell my story is to bring some hope for people with HIV,” said Edmonds, 67, of Desert Hot Springs, California. Of the five people in the world who have achieved remission for both diseases after receiving a transplant with the rare mutation, the man was the oldest in the group and the person who had had HIV the longest.Īt the time, Edmonds wished to remain anonymous. The mutation makes people who carry it resistant to acquiring HIV. ![]() In July 2022, City of Hope announced that a 66-year-old man who had been HIV-positive for over 30 years had gone into remission for acute myeloid leukemia and HIV thanks to a transplant using stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, homozygous CCR5 Delta 32. Paul Edmonds shares his story with ABC's "Nightline." He never imagined a day would come when he would live without HIV. So, when Edmonds was diagnosed in 1988 with not just HIV, but full-blown AIDS, he felt he had been given a death sentence.įor more than 30 years, Edmonds lived with HIV, taking different therapies to control the virus as much as possible. “People were dying within a few years of finding out they were positive,” Edmonds said. At that time, people didn’t know what their friends were dying from many called AIDS the “gay cancer.” In 1984, HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS. In the early 1980s, City of Hope patient Paul Edmonds went to a bar in San Francisco regularly after work, and often cried.Įdmonds recalled reading the obituaries of many friends in the weekly Bay Area Reporter.
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