Cancer and HIV: Story of the second person in the world to be cured of both ailments

Adam Castillejo, 43, made medical history by being the second person in the world to be cured of HIV following a stem cell transplant.

Referred to as the ‘London Patient’ for long, Castillejo went public about his identity in March 2020 in order to be "an ambassador of hope."

He was diagnosed with Human immunodeficiency virus infection in the early 2000s, when the disease was still “a death sentence,” he shared. A decade later, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma, which made him an almost hopeless case.

Castillejo was saved from both ailments at the same time by a complex bone marrow transplant from a compatible donor who also had a genetic alteration that prevented HIV from penetrating the cells, notes El País. This aggressive treatment first caused the cancer to go into remission, and then also cured Castillejo of HIV.

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Talking about the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, Castillejo told El País, “It was hard for other people [to understand] because you try to tell people, and there are people who never spoke to me again. You encounter a lot of ignorance and it’s important to know [that] when you’re going to tell [people about] your diagnosis. And there’s a moment when you ask yourself: why do I have to tell everyone that I have HIV?”

He added,”It’s a progression: at the beginning, you feel rejected by a lot of people, but then you see the reason for that rejection (ignorance, fear, taboo...).”

Coming to the present after he has been cured, he shared, “The stigma has branched out. There are people who still don’t understand that I’m cured and cannot wrap their heads around that word, but [now], being cured, I’ve also faced a lot of discrimination from my own community. There’s a section of my HIV community that doesn’t accept me [now] because I’m cured: “You’re cured, you’re not part of the group anymore, go away. Ciao.” They no longer identify with me. [But] that’s why I tell everyone that I am still and will remain part of that community: I am a survivor.”

Castillejo stopped taking antiretroviral treatment five years ago and the HIV has not come back. There is no trace of the cancer either. However, he is still recovering from the transplant and he has not returned to work for now. He shared that his dream is to have a fusion-cuisine restaurant that reflects his origins and the course of his life.

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The third person to – the Dusseldorf patient – has been cured of HIV with the virus not being detectable in his body even four years after stopping the medicine. The treatment followed a bone-marrow transplant from people carrying a specific HIV-resistant genetic mutation.

The first patient considered cured of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown. He was known as the "Berlin Patient" because he had been living in Berlin with both HIV and leukemia when he received the treatment.