Of Medicine and Miracles

Just saw this at the Centre Film Festival and wow, what a powerful story. I can honestly say I cried the entire time. How Dr. June and the Whitehead's separate stories ended up intertwining for such a miraculous conclusion was incredibly moving. The storytelling kept me enthralled the whole watch. I don't often watch documentaries or much related to science/medicine but this film I would recommend to anyone!

We also got to hear the Whitehead family speak in a panel after the screening and to see them all together on stage after just seeing even a glimpse of what they went through was inspirational.

This award-winning documentary chronicles the humbling journey of Carl June and his team including Stephan Grupp, David Porter, and many others at the University of Pennsylvania to develop CAR T-cell therapy which would revolutionize treatment for blood cancer.

The audience cannot help but relate to and be touched by Dr. June's humbling reflections of his own life, including his genuine, heart-wrenching emotion about his personal failures, setbacks, and losses, none more than losing his wife at a young age from ovarian cancer. When many would have quit, he kept pressing onward because his mind would not let him stop thinking about how T-cells could be engineered and programmed like soldiers (analogous to his days in the Navy) with HIV lentiviral vectors to kill cancer cells.

Juxtaposed with his journey is that of 5-year-old Emily Whitehead who had just relapsed from acute leukemia, having potentially only weeks left to live. Her parents' courage and persistence resulted in her becoming the first pediatric patient to enroll in an experimental infusion of CAR T-cells. When it caused a life-threatening complication, Dr. June's team discovered that high IL-6 levels could be causing her symptoms, ingeniously administering Tocilizumab, which provided valuable insight into cytokine release syndrome.

Today, Emily remains cancer free and is a freshman studying English at UPenn.

This is a story of bench-to-bedside and back, with so much more on the line than publications or grants. Every scientist and physician dreams about an "Aha" moment like this, and Carl June has a way of openly lending his journey to empower them to feel like they are on the same platform as him, sharing in this victory.

Dr. June humbly admitted that it took empathy and compassion, coupled with divine timing and even luck, to power these scientists to create a novel therapy that has now impacted thousands of lives with not just cancer but other diseases.

Dr. June is an absolutely incredible human and this is a heartbreaking story that ends in such incredible news. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be uplifted and also see what our modern medicine is possible, when done right. Great storytelling and really great creative cinematography and usage of the war metaphors - really has an impressive way of storytelling and getting really heartfelt interviews. Again, what a character for a documentary. Really hope more people see this film - I really do. I've been a fan of Ross since Born into Brothels. See this asap and recommend it to your friends and families, especially those who have personally dealt with loss or cancer.

I just screened this film and must admit, I expected a much better product. It is basically a vocal regurgitation of the stories and research that anyone can look up online relative to this cancer research and Emily's story. At around the 50-minute mark, I was bored - which means the storyteller is not doing what they need to in order to keep my attention. Disappointed.