First child cured by CAR T-cell therapy at UPenn hospital attends college
- Emily Whitehead first entered UPenn’s campus as a cancer patient at 6
- 11 years later, she’s cancer-free and attends the university as a freshman
- Whitehead: "It's surreal to be back on campus, but I'm happy to be here’
ovp test
Male shot by female at Shreveport apartment
Class to create biodiverse backyard
Rules for outbursts at Caddo School Board Meeting
(NewsNation) — Emily Whitehead began her first semester at the University of Pennsylvania at 18 years old this year; however; it wasn’t her first time on campus.
In 2010, at the age of 6, Whitehead was diagnosed with leukemia. Her family went to UPenn in search of a cure, resulting in Whitehead becoming the first pediatric recipient of CAR-T cell therapy, which was an experimental cancer treatment at the time.
After a few intensive weeks, Whitehead came out of a medically induced coma on her seventh birthday. cancer free.
“It’s very surreal to be back on campus, but I’m really happy to be here,” Whitehead said. “Being back on campus has brought up, some of the more fun memories like being with my parents, and I’m really happy that I don’t remember a lot of the pain. I think that’s really good for me.”
Tom Whitehead, Emily’s father, said UPenn and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia became like a second home to their family, but it was always his daughter’s goal to attend an Ivy League.
“Now to look out the window of her dorm and you can see the hospital, it’s really incredible that we received this miracle. Every day we try to pay it forward to help others too,” he said.
Tom Whitehead said Emily started treatments with standard chemotherapy, which she did for 16 months at the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital; however, the hospital ran out of treatment options. Then, his wife, who works in research at UPenn, did some and discovered the CAR-T cell trial.
“It was the best move we ever made,” he said. We literally received a miracle because, after 22 months of failed standard treatment, she was cancer-free 23 days after they treated her.”
Emily Whitehead’s message to others battling cancer is “to keep fighting.”
“My dad taught me that it’s really important to smile every day, too,” she said. “For people like me who are post-treatment, it’s important that we have other aspects of our identity as well, and that we’re not defined by our diagnoses. So, I think all of those things are important, and what have empowered me throughout my life.”
Tom Whitehead co-founded the Emily Whitehead Foundation to fund innovative childhood cancer treatments, like CAR T-cell therapy.
“We tell everybody just keep fighting and do a lot of research and trust your instincts,” he said.
