Cancer cure for HIV? Married father-of-one, 30, now leukaemia-free after doctors injected him with the virus that causes AIDS in experimental trial

A man who was diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of cancer two years ago is now amazingly in remission thanks to a revolutionary treatment that involved receiving an infusion of the virus that causes AIDS.

Marshall Jensen of Utah, was one of 30 leukaemia patients to undergo a trial treatment at Penn Medicine recently, in which white blood cells are implanted with a harmless form of HIV programmed to target and kill cancer.

The 30-year-old married father of one has so far responded well to the treatment and is now cancer-free for the first time in years.On Thursday, a healthier Jensen returned to his neighbourhood in Utah to a surprise homecoming celebration. 

The connection between leukemia and HIV was first discovered in 2006, when an HIV-positive man named Timothy Wood was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. After receiving a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, Wood's cancer went into remission and the HIV disappeared from his system making him the first man to ever be fully cured of the virus.Since then, Dr June and his team have been working vigilantly on developing a HIV-based treatment for leukemia and this October, published a study showing the therapy's success on 30 cancer patients.

The patients who received the treatment had billions of T-cells extracted from their body, which were taken to a lab and implanted with deactivated HIV. The 'serial killer' cells are then put back into the body to fight and kill cancer, and remain dormant until the cancer reappears. 

While the idea of receiving a dose of HIV may seem scary to some, Dr June says there's nothing to fear about the stripped-down virus used in the treatment. 

Daily Mail