Daniel Flora: Living Proof – Remission with Purpose
Daniel Flora, Medical Director of Oncology Research at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, shared a post on Substack:
“Living Proof: Remission with Purpose
I first met her in 2016. She was in her late 50s and had come in to get a swollen lymph node checked out. She had a few other medical issues going on and figured this was probably nothing.
But a biopsy told us otherwise: follicular lymphoma, a slow-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Imaging showed lymph nodes in her chest and neck, but she felt well. No pain, no major symptoms. When we discussed the diagnosis, she was understandably shocked. She felt fine and really wasn’t having any symptoms, so the word “cancer” came as a surprise.
But she was just as surprised when I told her we wouldn’t need to start treatment.
I explained to her that with low-grade, or indolent, lymphoma, a watch-and-wait approach is often the best option. We usually hold off on treatment until symptoms develop or the disease begins to affect quality of life.
For the next couple of years, we kept a close eye on things. Slowly, her lymph nodes grew. She began to feel more fatigued, lost some weight, and started to notice changes in her energy. That’s when we decided it was time to act.
She started on bendamustine and rituximab. Rituximab is a targeted antibody therapy that binds to a protein on the surface of B cells called CD20. It helps the immune system recognize and clear out the cancerous cells, like a guided signal that tells your body where to focus its defenses.
She did great with treatment. No infections, no hospital stays, and by the end of it, her scans showed a complete remission. She stayed on maintenance rituximab for two years, and then we stopped.
I saw her yesterday, seven years out from treatment. Still in remission. No long-term side effects. Just living her life.
She told me about the youth ministry she helps run for kids with special needs—how much joy it brings her and how it gives her purpose. Before she left, she thanked me for the care we provided. She said it gave her the chance to keep doing what she loves.
That meant the world to me.
She’s living proof.”
More posts featuring Daniel Flora.
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Challenging the Status Quo in Colorectal Cancer 2024
December 6-8, 2024
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ESMO 2024 Congress
September 13-17, 2024
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ASCO Annual Meeting
May 30 - June 4, 2024
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Yvonne Award 2024
May 31, 2024
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OncoThon 2024, Online
Feb. 15, 2024
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Global Summit on War & Cancer 2023, Online
Dec. 14-16, 2023