Cancer and Clinical Services Patient Stories

Katy Boggs arrived at the OSUCCC – James by way of the emergency department. “I had no idea what was wrong with me, but I was soon told that I had NK/T-cell or natural-killer/T-cell lymphoma. It’s an incredibly rare type of cancer — there’s not a lot known about it, and it’s not been studied very much."

“I wasn’t expected to live much longer, so I started telling my family goodbye.”

Jonathan Brammer, MD, had other ideas.

Although he already had a family vacation scheduled to start the next day, he extended his day and mapped out a care plan for Katy. “My first four days in the ICU were a blur; I honestly don’t remember it,” she says. “But Dr. Brammer explained the diagnosis and what could be done to my family, and they all agreed that there was nothing to lose by trying.”

Katy’s body wasn’t physically able to complete a SMILE regimen, which is a chemo treatment targeting a specific protein in NK cells, so a new plan was put in place — one that included bone marrow transplantation. With no time available to find a donor match, Katy began preparation for an autologous stem cell transplant. For this procedure, healthy blood stem cells from the patient’s own body are used to replace their diseased bone marrow.

“The process isn’t painful,” Katy explains, “but it involves a lot of pokes and prods.” First, medication is used to increase the number of stem cells in the blood over multiple days. After this, blood is drawn from one arm, fed through a machine that filters out the stem cells and then the blood is returned to the body. The collected stem cells are preserved for later use after high doses of chemotherapy (or in other cases, radiation) are used to kill the cancer cells.

“I was pretty isolated during this time, but I always felt very secure,” Katy says. “You just keep your eye on the prize and know that life and happier days are ahead. I held on because I had so many people counting on me, and I’d just focus on making it five more minutes, then half-an-hour and then an hour. Before I knew it, a couple more days would pass.”

Katy’s care team gave her a “stem cell stuffed animal” for comfort during her treatment, and she still has it today. “It just represents so much,” she says. “Everyone at The James was so incredibly supportive and understanding. They explained exactly what they were going to do, and while they were honest about something not being pleasant, they let me know that we’d tackle it together. I didn’t have to go through anything alone.”

Today, Katy counts many people at The James among her friends. “It’s so nice to have them know me as a healthy person, and we call, text and catch up on Facebook. I’m proud to call them my friends, and it’s been so great to see Dr. Brammer get married and meet his first baby.”

Katy summarizes her time at The James with incredible gratitude. As she explains, “You may not have hair, and you might feel miserable, but you still have dignity and you’re treated as the most beautiful person when you’re there. That’s where you’ll find my angels on earth.”