It is hard to believe, but last spring Emma, then 6, was near
death from leukemia. She had relapsed twice after chemotherapy,
and doctors had run out of options. Desperate to save her, her
parents sought an experimental treatment at the Childrenís
Hospital of Philadelphia, one that had never before been tried
in a child, or in anyone with the type of leukemia Emma had. The
experiment, in April, used a disabled form of the virus that
causes AIDS to reprogram Emmaís immune system genetically to
kill cancer cells. The treatment very nearly killed her. But she
emerged from it cancer-free, and about seven months later is
still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of
the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a
long-sought goal ó giving a patientís own immune system the
lasting ability to fight cancer. Emma had been ill with acute
lymphoblastic leukemia since 2010, when she was 5, said her
parents, Kari and Tom. She is their only child. She is among
just a dozen patients with advanc