Treatment doctor tested on himself can put others into remission.

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▼ Five years ago, David C. Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, both a Penn Medicine researcher and patient, tried an experimental treatment on himself based on his laboratory research findings in the hopes of saving his own life. He has been in remission ever since. Now his research is shedding new light on why it worked, paving the way for further testing of a new treatment approach in Castleman disease, a rare and deadly condition with limited options for patients. The work is led by Fajgenbaum, who is both the director of the Center for Study & Treatment of Castleman's & Inflammatory Lymphadenopathies (CSTL) in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania as well as Patient 1 in the study. The findings show patients who do not respond to the only drug currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of the disease may have another option that targets a specific pathway called PI3K/Akt/mTOR. The research is published in theJournal of Clinical Investigationtoday.
Castleman disease isn't actually a single disease. The term describes a group of inflammatory disorders that share a common appearance under the microscope. It's diagnosed in about 5,000 people of all ages each year in the United States, which makes it roughly as common as Lou Gehrig's disease, also called ALS. Patients experience a range of symptoms—from a single abnormal lymph node with mild flu-like symptoms to abnormal lymph nodes located throughout their entire body, abnormal blood cell counts, and life-threatening failure of multiple organ systems, such as the kidneys, liver, heart, and lungs.
The most severe subtype, idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD), has similarities to both autoimmune conditions as well as cancer. About 35 percent of patients with iMCD will die within five years of diagnosis. In 2014, the FDA approved the drug siltuximab to treat iMCD, and studies have shown it can send between one-third and one-half of patients into a remission that generally lasts for years.
"Patients who don't respond to siltuximab have limited options. They typically receive chemotherapy but often relapse," said Fajgenbaum, who is also an (▪ ▪ ▪)

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parivijesh100

Ethically it may be wrong. Testing on self indicates your power of taking rusk & not to test it on animals. But life of such inventive doctors are very precious for society. One experiment may fail also but he will be healthy for many such trials & innovation.