'Of Medicines And Miracles': Documentary Highlighting Cancer Cure Developed In Philadelphia To Premiere At Tribeca Film Festival
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A cancer cure developed in Philadelphia will be featured in a documentary premiering this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will feature medical teams at Penn Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, along with a young patient who was the first in the world to test the treatment.
This is a group of superstars, they've paved the way to save thousands of other patients and it all started with a 5-year-old little girl named Emily.
The team at Penn Medicine celebrated the FDA approval of a therapy they created to treat Leukemia. It's going to be featured in a new documentary called "Of Medicines and Miracles."
"The world of cancer is forever changed today," Dr. June said.
Dr. Carl June led the team in creating the world's first CAR T-Cell therapy. It reprograms a patient's own immune cells to kill their cancer.
"It's been a surprise all the way along and I'm such a privileged person to be able to see actually the results of these," Dr. June said. "It's almost 30 years of experiments."
The other star of the documentary is Emily Whitehead, who had a long battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
"You need to take her home and enjoy the days you have left with her," her father, Tom Whitehead said.
In desperation, Emily's parents turned to the team at Penn and CHOP in 2012.
"We were looking for anything, it was her last chance," mother Kari said.
It was a rollercoaster, but after five years the cancer was gone.
"Keep telling us Emily is writing history books because she's the first in the world to beat leukemia," Tom said.
The Whiteheads started a foundation to support cancer research.
A decade later, Emily is cancer-free and officially cured. She says it has all "really been amazing" and she's "super grateful."
The documentary about her remarkable survival is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
"I'm hoping it can spread awareness," Emily said.
Dr. June says immunotherapy is being used on a growing number of patients and is being tested for other cancers. Emily is looking at colleges and wants to study film-making and environmental science.
"It's as close to a miracle as I've ever seen and she came close to death many times and now there are more than 15,000 people who've been treated with what she first got here in Philadelphia," Dr. June said.