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Mario

I’m a very simple guy. I’ve worked in the financial industry for almost 10 years, however, my passion is cooking. In 2019, I had just lost 225 lbs. I was preparing to go back to culinary school.

There was a family incident in March of that year, and it put a lot of stress on us. I kept developing a strong workout routine to really help me get on the right track.

Gabby

Her name is Gabriella Sarai. We call her Gabby! She is a feisty little four year old. She has been running circles around her two older brothers, her dad, and me since she was able to walk. She is the baby and the only girl. She gets away with a lot.

Nate

On Monday July 17, 2017 my world got flipped upside down. I got out of work to bring my son, Nate to the ER, he had a bad stomach ache, my thoughts were he might have appendicitis. When I got him to CCMC, he was in extreme pain and they took him in right away. Initially the docs thought the same, they did a bedside ultrasound to find the appendix and it could not be found. A few hours passed and I'm asked to step out the room. At that moment I knew that my life would never be the same... My son, my life, my everything was sick and this time a kiss and band aid wasn't going to fix it.

Donna

I was shockingly diagnosed with a monoclonal spike in November 2019 (six months after the unexpected death of my mom). Treatment was started in June 2020. I went to Mt. Sinai NYC where they have a team that just deals with multiple myeloma (MM). I am grateful that a couple of people recommended I go there. They treated me with four drugs, one of which wasn’t available at my local oncologist. The regimen was Velcade, Revlimid®, daratumumab, and dexamethasone. I had this induction therapy until my stem cell transplant in March 2021.

Diagnosis

Having the correct diagnosis is important for getting the right treatment. Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) may be difficult to diagnosis. You may want to get a second medical opinion by an experienced hematopathologist before you begin treatment. A hematopathologist is a specialist who studies blood and bone marrow cells and other tissues to help diagnose diseases of the blood, bone marrow and lymph system.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of potent drugs or chemicals, often in combinations or intervals, to kill or damage cancer cells in the body. Chemotherapy drugs are often called anticancer agents. The drugs must be toxic enough to kill leukemic cells, which is why chemotherapy can be hard on your body; the drugs' toxicity can harm your healthy cells as well. However, successful chemotherapy depends on the fact that cancerous cells are more sensitive to the chemicals in the drug than normal cells are.

Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation involves the use of stem cells from someone other than the patient. The donated stem cells can come from either a person related or not related to the patient. 

Mental Health

The term “mental health” includes your emotional and psychological well-being. Your mental health guides how you handle stress, manage relationships and make decisions. Mental health, like physical health, is important to your overall well-being.

Emotions like sadness, anger or stress are normal and healthy responses to difficult life events, such as a cancer diagnosis. However, sometimes persistent feelings of sadness, stress or anxiety can be caused by a mental health disorder. Don't ignore any of these feelings. Talk to your healthcare team about how you are feeling.  

Diagnosis

An accurate diagnosis is one of the most important aspects of a person’s care. Obtaining a precise diagnosis will help the doctor

• Determine the MDS subtype 
• Estimate how the disease will progress
• Determine the most appropriate treatment

Since MDS can be a difficult disease to diagnose, you may want to get a second medical opinion by an experienced hematopathologist before you begin treatment.

Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy

There are many different types of drugs used in the treatment of MDS.

Immunosuppressive Therapy. Drugs that suppress certain parts of the immune system can help some patients with lower-risk MDS. In some types of MDS, lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, may attack the bone marrow, causing it to stop making enough healthy blood cells. Immunosuppressive therapy lowers the body’s immune response to allow bone marrow stem cells to grow and make new blood cells. The main immunosuppressive therapy drugs used to treat MDS are:

FDA Broadens Treatment Options for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma

FDA Approves New Bispecific Antibody for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtype

Nausea and Vomiting

Many cancer treatments can cause nausea and vomiting. Nausea, also called feeling “queasy” or “sick to your stomach,” is that unpleasant feeling you have when you are going to throw up. Vomiting is throwing up what is inside your stomach through the mouth. Nausea and vomiting can happen together, or one can occur without the other. The severity of nausea and vomiting varies among patients. Sometimes these side effects improve as you adjust to treatment, and most side effects go away after treatment ends.

Hodgkin Lymphoma Staging

Doctors use physical examinations, imaging tests, blood test and, sometimes, bone marrow tests to determine the extent of the disease.  This determination is called "staging."  Staging provides important information for treatment planning.

Staging for Hodgkin lymphoma is based on the Lugano classification, which is derived from the Ann Arbor staging system.

Signs and Symptoms

In the early stages of myeloma, some patients have no signs or symptoms of the disease. It is sometimes detected before symptoms appear, when results of laboratory tests done as part of a routine medical examination show abnormalities in the blood and/or urine. When symptoms are present, the most common ones are bone pain and fatigue.

Doctors sometimes refer to the acronym, CRAB, to describe signs of myeloma. The letters stand for

Legal and Financial

Advance directives are a patient's instructions about future medical care in case he or she can no longer speak for himself or herself. Ideally, an advance directive should be in place before a person becomes ill or before a crisis.

Treatment

Every patient’s situation should be evaluated individually by a hematologist-oncologist who specializes in treating MDS and who will discuss the disease subtype, prognostic factors and treatment options with the patient. It is also important to seek treatment at a center that has experience in treating MDS. 

Doctors use several types of approaches and treatment combinations for MDS:

Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation

In autologous stem cell transplantation, the procedure uses the patient’s own stem cells for the transplant. The stem cells are collected from the patient in advance and are frozen. After the patient undergoes high doses of chemotherapy, either with or without radiation therapy, the stem cells are then returned to the body. This type of transplant is often used to treat blood cancers such as Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma.  

Managing Side Effects

Work closely with your doctor and cancer care team to prepare yourself with information about what to expect and how to cope with side effects.  For some patients, side effects may last well after treatment is completed or may be permanent. For most patients, side effects are temporary and go away when the body adjusts to therapy or once treatment ends. On the other hand, some patients suffer symptoms that may require hospitalization until they subside.

Reactions to treatment vary from patient to patient. Reactions also vary depending on:

How to Find a Treatment Center

A number of resources are available to help you find a treatment center. Your primary care doctor may be able to provide a referral or you can use doctor and insurance referral services.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) supports a national network of cancer centers. Each center must meet specific scientific, organizational and administrative criteria. See a list of NCI-approved cancer centers.

The following organizations can also help:

Talking With Members of Your Oncology Team

Ask your oncology team about the fertility effects of your treatment. By having this information before treatment begins, you can consider the options most likely to preserve your fertility. You can also ask for a referral to a fertility specialist to help you understand and explore your options. Fertility specialists include:

Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Most people of childbearing age who have been treated for cancer and are able to conceive can go on to have low-risk pregnancies and healthy babies. Patients should be able to become pregnant if treatment did not affect their ovaries or uterus, and there are no other medical issues that may impact fertility. Before you try to become pregnant, talk with your treatment team about your medical readiness for pregnancy. You may also want to have a fertility assessment by consulting with a doctor called a “reproductive endocrinologist.”

Survivorship

Use this Survivorship Workbook to collect all the important information you need throughout diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care and long-term management of a blood cancer.

Bereavement

Losing a child is possibly the most difficult thing a parent can experience. Grief can affect each person emotionally, physically, cognitively and behaviorally. Many people express grief in an outward way; for example, crying, a lack of energy or trouble sleeping. Others, on the surface, may not seem to be grieving. Instead, these people process grief internally. Their grief may go unrecognized and unacknowledged. Be aware that grief is personal and specific to the person. Try not to make judgments about how you, your co-parent or others process the loss of your child.

Healthcare for Undocumented Persons

In most states, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicare, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or to buy Marketplace health coverage. There may be limited options for coverage for emergency services; however, cancer treatment may not constitute emergency care.