CURED: Stem Cell Clinical Trial Stories

I didn't know we were going to speak but
thank you for keeping my family complete.
My experience has truly been life-changing.
Just the hope of it being able to give
me back the use of my hands and
my upper extremities which would be huge.
Thank you for your funding which gives patients like me
in my situation, hope.
It was a strong year and CIRM is getting
stronger and you might ask:
How strong can CIRM get?
CIRM can get Jake strong.
I'm Jake Javier, I'm 19 years old from
Danville California. On June 9th of this last
year I had a spinal cord injury after
diving into a pool the day before my
high school graduation that left me paralyzed
from the chest down.
From a standing position
he dove into the deep end and
god only knows how that happened but his
head hit the bottom and he fractured his neck.
Our life spiraled into a full speed
catastrophic feeling of our entire life
and Jake's life being turned upside down.
And Jake had the courage to participate
in one of our clinical trials and was
the first to receive 10 million cell
embryonic stem cell dose into his spinal cord.
What that has given Jake is the hope of independence.
To be able to transfer in and out of bed
and the car and what not.
He's not even concerned about walking at this point.
And that was never promised to him.
But we want to thank all of you
for what you do in helping families that
go through these times in their lives to
give them hope above all.
Thank you so much. Thank you everyone.
So there's not a moment to lose in this game.
We have got to go.
And every time you meet someone as courageous
and as strong as Jake, who is willing to take
that chance to take those risks for us,
reminds us of our responsibility
and our duties to get on with it.
So I want to introduce Carl Trede
to tell you about his experience
as the first patient to receive anti-CD47 in
a CIRM-funded clinical trial after
being diagnosed with throat and lung cancer.
In 2006, I was diagnosed with cancer in the larynx.
Went through 35 radiation treatments
and in 2011 was declared clear of cancer.
In 2012, we found cancer in my lungs.
We found adenoid cystic carcinoma which is a
cancer for which there is no effective treatment.
And fortunately in August of '14,
I was able to participate in a
trial at Stanford for over a 72 week period.
I received weekly treatments.
We saw a decrease in the growth rate but
did not see sufficient benefit to justify my
continuing in that particular trial.
I wanted to take this opportunity to tell
all of you thank you for what you do,
for your support for your funding which
gives patients like me and my situation hope
that we could very very possibly see a cure.
Thank you very much.
When you meet Jake and when you meet
Carl the point of this is we cannot ever
be satisfied with what we're doing.
We always always have to be getting better.
And so we will never stop getting better.
How much better?
Until we're cured.
I'm going to introduce to you,
Evangelina and Brenden, our first two patients
to have been cured through CIRM-funded programs.
Thank you for keeping my family complete.
I think it's hard when you read and
you hear about all of this advanced medicine.
It is hard to believe until you actually
see it the results you know and
it's just truly...wouldn't get to enjoy watching
my daughter see some of the
things that we do these days.
So thank you, thank you very much.
I just want to thank everybody
for all the work that you guys do.
My experience is truly been life-changing and
you guys are doing great work and
I just hope that you continue to
push the boundaries and
do this kind of research and
help as many people as you can.
Both of them have significantly reduced
life expectancies otherwise.
Both of them today are cured.
To Evangelina and to Brenden and to Jake and to Karl:
thank you so much for being here as well.
You're making history for all Californians.

CURED: Stem Cell Clinical Trial Stories

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