Howie has battled cancer three times, most recently in 2022. His cancer journey began in 2001, a week after his first wedding anniversary. Howie came down with a fever and gradually began to experience deepening fatigue. He was 27 years old and considered himself in good shape, so he was alarmed at feeling inexplicably out of breath. At first, his doctor downplayed his symptoms, telling him this would “blow over” and he’d soon forget it ever happened. However, testing revealed that Howie had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was told to take 3 months off work and begin treatment immediately.
The treatments I’ve had on my cancer journey weren’t even available twenty-five years ago. But because of pioneering research primarily funded by Congress, we’re seeing lives saved.
Howie began chemotherapy and was optimistic that he was told his cancer treatment had a 90% success rate. He received chemotherapy and finally received a treatment that put him in remission. His doctor later told him that had the treatment not worked, they would not have had any other options.
Despite the remission, his doctors warned him he would need a bone marrow transplant to prevent the leukemia from returning. Because of his genetic history, he was added to the National Marrow Donor Program. He received maintenance chemo and knew he had to wait for news of a donor. To avoid wasting time Howie didn’t have, his care team had another idea.
Howie was the first adult in Oklahoma to have a cord blood stem cell transplant – the blood from the umbilical cord of a delivered pregnancy. Doctors had found success with the treatments for children and teenagers, but hadn’t yet utilized this treatment for adults. Had Howie received his diagnosis ten years prior, he wouldn’t have survived because this type of treatment wasn’t available yet.
The transplant was an initial success. Unfortunately, one year and one week following the transplant, Howie had a relapse. Just after learning the news, he remembered the words of his doctor over a year ago, saying they had no other options if the final treatment hadn’t put him in remission.
Luckily, his doctors had positive news for him: the rest of the matching cord blood was still available, and he was eligible for another cord blood transplant. After going into remission, he had another cord blood transplant, and his doctor was inspired to study PET scans to go in and see how cells were reacting in the early days following a transplant to know if the transplanted cells had started to grow. Following the second transplant, he has been leukemia-free since October of 2003.
In 2022, Howie was diagnosed with prostate cancer – the second-worst type of prostate cancer you can get. Howie’s doctors immediately got him into a clinical trial and, following treatments, he has been in remission.