CAR T-cell Therapy for Lymphoma: Bob Falter's Story

#lymphoma #uvahealth Bob Falter was diagnosed with B-cell follicular lymphoma, his family was in shock. At UVA Health Cancer Center, he underwent chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy approaches, and continued to relapse. That's when they tried a novel treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which involves genetically modifying T-cells in order to attack cancerous tumors. Now Bob has a new lease on life. Find out more at: https://uvahealth.com/services/blood-... Transcript BOB FALTER: My name is Bob Falter, and I was in the Navy for 22 years. Now I'm a financial planner. I've been married for 25 years to a wonderful wife Tammy. And so when we live here in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Summer of 2015, I was diagnosed with B-cell follicular lymphoma. TAMMY FALTER: It was pretty traumatic. Whenever you hear the word cancer, it's a scary thought. LAUREN FALTER: He is the light in our family. And so losing him, oh my goodness, I can't even imagine CRAIG PORTELL: Bob was referred to me from an outside facility in Winchester. And he was quite symptomatic at the time. We gave him various rounds of chemotherapy, which was available. And unfortunately, he did not respond very well to those. And finally, we decided to try some non-chemotherapy approaches with a drug called Idelalisib. BOB FALTER: That put me almost in remission. But then, January of last year, my legs started to swell again. And I said, well, the tumors are back. So at that point, thank goodness there was an opening for the CAR T-cell treatment. INDUMATHY VARADARAJAN: It's a very novel therapy, where we extract T cells, genetically modify them into super soldiers, literally super soldiers that are capable of identifying these tumor cells. And when they are inserted back into the person suffering with cancer, they go directly to the tumor and destroy the tumor in many instances and produce remarkable results. And that's what happened with Bob. BOB FALTER: We did two weeks in the hospital in March last year and then stayed in a hotel for two weeks in the first part of April. And it was an amazing treatment. TAMMY FALTER: When Dr. Indu took us in and said, let me show you the PET scan, and we both looked at each other, and I said, well, where is it, Dr. Indu? She said, Tammy, it's gone. To me, that was a miracle. INDUMATHY VARADARAJAN: There are very few institutions, 20 or less, that are high performing, that perform more than five to six infusions a year. I consider this an honor to be able to treat patients like Bob, to be able to give such cutting-edge therapy to people, and to see it work in front of you. I would say that the future is very bright and hopes that for him. CRAIG PORTELL: It is a very big thing that we have a Comprehensive Cancer Center here in Virginia. When I first met Bob, he could not have traveled to a major academic center that he couldn't drive to. Some people are sick enough, where that's just not possible. TAMMY FALTER: He feels great. And he's back to doing all of his activities that he did and if not better than he was doing them before. BOB FALTER: Dr. Indu, Dr. Portell, UVA, have given me an extension on my contract with life. So it's been good. And now we're healthy and happy. We got a wonderful life back.