NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Every year, more than 80,000 Americans hear the life-changing words: You have Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. That may not sound like a lot — until you realize it’s the entire population of Chattanooga, Tennessee or nearly a packed Rose Bowl Stadium. Most of those patients face round after round of chemotherapy. But when this blood cancer comes back, options are limited. Now, doctors are turning to a groundbreaking new therapy; one that’s not only giving patients more healthy years, but in some cases, wiping out the cancer altogether.
Kyle Stephens isn’t just working out; he’s pushing back against cancer.
“When you hear cancer you just immediately think of, you know, death sentence,” he said.
Four years ago, this father of three was diagnosed with Stage Four Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. It had spread through his stomach, spleen and below his diaphragm.
“I never thought this would happen to me,” Kyle told Ivanhoe.
“It was kind of nerve wracking. Like you didn’t know if he was gonna get better,” said his daughter Stella.
Six aggressive rounds of chemo put Kyle in remission, but then…
“It lasted until my one-year scan and then the doctor came back in and said, ‘Unfortunately, I don’t have good news for you today,’” he recalled.
Kyle’s cancer was back. But doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center had a new option for him.
“CAR T is a new way of treating lymphoma,” Olalekan Oluwole, MD, MPH, associated professor of medicine and hematology oncology and stem cell transplant oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center told Ivanhoe.
Kyle’s own blood was filtered to remove T-cells. In the lab, these T-cells were re-engineered into cancer killers and infused back into Kyle to hunt down every lymphoma cell.
“They are like precision serial killers,” explained Dr. Oluwole.
Unlike chemo, healthy cells are left unharmed. Today, Kyle is in complete remission.
“Within a month he was back to the gym, kind of settling back to his job and routine as a father. And that to me is one of the greatest strengths of this new way of treating cancer,” said Dr. Oluwole.
And now Kyle is stronger than ever.
“I wanna be here for them, you know, I want them to have a father as they grow up,” he expressed.
Clinical trials are now testing CAR T as a first treatment for lymphoma, even in severe autoimmune diseases like lupus and MS. The hope is simple: more access, more patients, and more lives saved.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldshmidt, Videographer; Chuck Bennethum, Editor.
Source:
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/about/key-statistics.html
* For More Information, Contact: Craig Boerner
Assistant Director, Media Director, & National News Director for the Department of News and Communications at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
(615) 322-4747
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