About Mike

Mike was diagnosed with cancer Feb. 16. It's mantle cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There have been many tests, transfusions, CAT & PET scans, hospital & doctor appointments since then. There were 6 rounds of aggressive weeklong sessions of chemotherapy over 6 months. After all that, he still had cancer in his bone marrow, he needed stem cells from a donor. Neither of his siblings matched, so we went through Marrow.org’s worldwide registry to find one. Our donor was a 36 year old international male. Mike started his transplant process at KU Med Sunday, Aug. 16. He had hi dose chemo and full body radiation for 4 days, wiping out all his bone marrow, then got the new stem cells. Since then he's been going through a difficult and complicated recovery process in the BMT Isolation Unit. He was released from the hospital after a month on September 15. He still has no immune system, so it's sanitary isolation time at home as well. Host vs. graft disease has to be managed. There are still many tests, transfusions and treatments for the next year or so. Lots of challenges and changes ahead, including Mike's blood type & DNA!

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), which represents approximately 6% of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cases, remains the most challenging lymphoma to treat.