The following video contains a story of a patient whose life has been
changed by research and treatment at The Ohio State University Cancer
Center. You will hear a real story that demonstrates why The Power to
Change Lives exists in all of us.
Carl Stewart
In 1998, Carl Stewart was told he had only a short time to live after
doctors found a large lymphoma tumor in his brain. The tumor likely
stemmed from a kidney transplant from many years before. The
post-transplant medication he had been taking to weaken his immune
system and keep it from attacking the donated kidney had also enabled a
virus called Epstein-Barr (EBV) to run rampant and lead to lymphoma.
When Stewart came to Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James
Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), he
enrolled in an antiviral drug therapy clinical trial led by Michael
Caligiuri, MD, whose laboratory, along with collaborators at OSU, had
devised an animal model of human central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma.
Researchers hypothesized that novel drug therapies targeting EBV and
lymphoma cells in the lab could be explored in humans with EBV and
primary CNS lymphoma.
“Dr. Caligiuri said I’d be the first patient with transplant-related
primary CNS lymphoma to undergo this therapy,” Stewart says. “I jumped
at the chance.” Less than a year later, the tumor was gone, and Stewart
remains cancer-free – a prime example of a patient benefiting from
innovative, science-based treatment.