Living Proof: A Leap of Faith

How Family, Faith, and a Clinical Trial Saved One Man's Life

As a cancer doctor, every day I witness how profoundly this disease can change lives. I've stood beside patients during their darkest moments, and I've experienced it within my own family. Yet even amidst the hardest times, nothing compares to the incredible resilience I see in my patients. I've witnessed countless times the unbreakable strength of the human spirit. No matter how often I see it, it never fails to humble and inspire me.

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(Story with permission)

I’ve known John now for more than ten years, not just as a patient, but someone I’ve come to deeply respect as a friend. He was one of the first people I took care of when I started Oncology practice in 2014. A Marine veteran, welding foreman, and proud grandfather, John carried a quiet strength about him. I remember thinking when we first met, “This guy has been through some stuff.” You could see it clearly in his face, not in a defeated way, but in that steady, worn-in manner that tells you someone’s been tested. Later, when I learned he had served in Vietnam, it all made sense. His cancer diagnosis didn't seem to shake him. He faced it the way he faced everything else in life: calm, focused, and grounded in what mattered most. John and his wife, Tammy, shared a deep faith in God, and they leaned into it with every decision they made. At the time we met, they were helping raise their grandkids, and it became clear that each appointment, each treatment, was about staying here for them.

John was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2013. At first, his treatment went well. He responded to chemotherapy, stayed strong, and never complained. He kept showing up, did what needed to be done, and just kept going. But over time, the disease started to shift. The remissions got shorter. The cancer grew more stubborn. We worked through treatment after treatment over the next several years, including targeted therapies, biologics, and immune-based drugs. Some worked for a while, but none lasted.

Those years were tough. Not just because the cancer was hard to treat, but because the treatments themselves started to take a toll. John developed serious infections, likely made worse by the impact of the therapies on his immune system. He battled pneumonia, shingles, and multiple rounds of C. diff. Each of those can be devastating on their own. It was a heavy burden to carry, especially on top of a cancer that kept coming back.

But through all of it, John never wavered. He kept walking into clinic with the same quiet resolve. I found myself feeling more and more limited in what I could offer. We were doing everything we could, but the disease kept coming back. It’s a hard place to be as a doctor, knowing how hard someone is fighting, how much they still have to live for, and feeling like the medicine isn’t doing enough.

What kept them going, I believe, was their faith. John and Tammy relied on it completely. They believed that God still had a purpose for his life, and that belief gave them strength when nothing else could. Even when the options were few, they kept showing up with hope. And John kept fighting, not for himself, but for the people he loved.

Around that time, I had been following a new clinical trial opening at the institution of a colleague and friend, Dr. Jim Essell. It was a study using a promising new technology called CAR T-cell therapy. I knew John was someone who might benefit from it.

CAR T-cell therapy is one of the most advanced tools we have in cancer care. It works by taking a patient’s T cells, the immune cells that normally fight infections, and reprogramming them in a lab to recognize cancer. Once trained, the cells are infused back into the body to find and destroy the cancer directly. It’s not chemo. It’s personalized immunotherapy, and in the right setting, it can be incredibly powerful.

But this trial was testing something even newer. Instead of using the patient’s own cells, it used healthy donor cells that had already been engineered and were ready to go. The therapy, called CB-010, was what we call “off the shelf.” That meant fewer delays and hopefully a better outcome, especially for patients like John who had already been through so much.

In June 2021, John became the first patient in the United States to receive CB-010 as part of the ANTLER trial.

The first few days after the infusion were tough. He had side effects that required close monitoring and supportive care. But he and Tammy stayed grounded, just like they always had. They trusted the science. They trusted their faith.

And then, something started to shift.

Within a few weeks, the cancer began shrinking. His scans got better, and his symptoms eased. Gradually, each sign pointed toward something we hardly dared to say out loud.

It was working.

Eventually, his scans showed no evidence of cancer. He was in complete remission.

I saw John in the office recently, now 4 years out from treatment and he looks great. Steady, grounded, and back to doing what he loves. He’s still raising his grandchildren and showing up for the people who matter most. He told me he feels good. His energy is back. His spirit never left. That same quiet strength I noticed when we first met is still there, maybe even stronger now.

He remains in complete remission and continues to follow up with me every six months for close monitoring. At this point, it’s very likely that John is cured.

Several CAR T-cell therapies like the one John received have since become FDA-approved and are now changing the game for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. But back then, it was still unproven. John enrolled in that clinical trial when nothing was guaranteed, and he did it with courage and hope—not just for himself, but for the patients who would come after him. His story helped move the science forward.

Not every story ends like this. But when it does, it reminds us of what’s possible. What faith can carry. What love for a family can inspire. And what science, when met with courage, can achieve.

For me, this is what progress in cancer looks like. Not just numbers in a publication, but a man sitting across from me in clinic, years later, living his life with strength and purpose. This is why we do the work. This is why we keep going.

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A link to a local news article from 2022 sharing John’s story:

Kentucky man in remission after being first in the world to receive experimental cancer treatment