Scientists Race To Improve 'Living Drugs' To Fight Cancer

"Aaron Reid is lying in a hospital bed at the National Institutes of Health when doctors arrive to make sure he's ready for his experimental treatment."

"'How's your night? Any issues?"' asks Dr. Katherine Barnett, a pediatric oncologist, as they begin to examine Reid."

"Reid, 20, of Lucedale, Miss., has been fighting leukemia ever since he was nine years old. He's been through chemotherapy and radiation twice, a bone marrow transplant and two other treatments."

"But the leukemia keeps coming back. This time, the cancer is all over his body. He can feel the pain in his bones. He's here today for what could be his last hope."

"'The big plan for the day: Get the cells," says Dr. Andrea Gross, another pediatric oncologist."

"The cells are an experimental version of a relatively new cancer therapy called CAR-T. These CAR-T cells are sometimes called 'living drugs' because they are engineered from patients' own immune system cells."