Inspirational Stories

In December 2023, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t catch my breath, so my wife called an ambulance. I was taken to a nearby hospital where I was diagnosed with blood cancer, Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL), to be exact.

I was transferred within hours to the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California, and spent nearly a month there while undergoing successful chemotherapy. I switched to nearby University of California Irvine Health’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Orange, California, to prepare for a June 2024 stem cell transplant, which would help keep my cancer from returning. I was released after a month, and tests showed my cancer was in remission.

I was able to get my weekly post-transplant care at the newly built Chao Cancer Center on the UC Irvine campus where I was one of the first patients beginning in August 2024. At that time, during a “soft” opening, the facility was open only once a week. It’s now fully staffed five days a week. I’m grateful to report that my cancer is still in remission.

“We have excellent transplant outcomes for patients up to the age of 72 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” said Dr. Stefan Ciurea, Director of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program at the Chao Cancer Center.

At UCI, I participated in a clinical trial involving a conditioning regimen with fludarabine, melphalan, and low-dose total body irradiation. This trial aims to customize conditioning chemotherapy for patients based on disease risk and comorbidities. All 29 patients in my cohort achieved engraftment with full replacement of recipient cells with donor cells according to Dr. Ciurea.

He reports that the two-year relapse rate is 0% so far. The incidence of severe acute and chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD) was very low. Two-year overall and disease-free survival were both 83% after a median follow-up of nearly 15 months post-transplant. He said these results compare favorably with the current standard of care, where two-year overall and disease-free survival was approximately 60%.

“These results encourage us to further evaluate this approach for patients with ALL,” Dr. Ciurea said. A comparison with a control group of patients from the U.S. Registry will be done in the near future, he said.

In my first few days in the hospital, I felt mentally strong, and I told myself that if I got through this, I would see what I could do to help others going through the same thing. And that brought me to volunteer with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), which I discovered on Google. I’m now working as a peer-to-peer counselor and communications volunteer. After several hours of training, I had my first counseling session with a nice couple in the Midwest where I’m originally from.

I’m also helping to spread the word about LLS and its many useful programs. I was able to make contact with UC Irvine social workers and help set up a successful luncheon meeting with LLS outreach manager Laura Diaz, which led to stronger ties between them. My volunteer work has been uplifting and rewarding for me as the long slog of complete recovery continues.