CAR T-Cell Therapy Helps Leukemia Patient Fight Cancer

Brandon Woods is a big-time Kansas City Chiefs fan. He remembers that when Chiefs safety and local legend Eric Berry triumphed over cancer, he stated in an award acceptance speech, “I’m not accepting this award for me. I’m accepting it for all the fighters out there.”

Brandon is one of those fighters.

Already a son, brother, grandson, criminology student, barbecue lover and devoted parent to his Dachshund, Roscoe, Brandon plans to add “survivor” to his list of distinctions – just as Berry did.

An unexpected turn

In spring 2016, Brandon was attending Kansas State University. He’d completed basic military training the previous summer and hoped to return to become a tank crewman. But he encountered a difficult challenge he had to face first as he began to experience unusual symptoms.

“Walking short distances left me feeling like I’d run a mile,” Brandon describes. “My heart would race 90 miles a minute. I noticed grapefruit-sized bruises on my knee and arm, and my knees began to hurt. I was 20 years old and shouldn’t have been worried about shortness of breath and knee trouble.”

Brandon’s grandfather, Don, with whom he lives, also noticed the young man wasn’t himself. After Brandon came home from playing pickleball – exhausted after just a couple of games and with no color in his face – Don took Brandon to the emergency room.

“They drew blood and said my blood cells looked suspect,” Brandon recalls. “The word they used was ‘leukemic.’ What? They quickly sent me to a specialist.”

The right cancer care

That specialist was blood and marrow transplant expert Anurag Singh, MD, at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. There, an evaluation revealed Brandon’s disease: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Brandon’s parents now live in Wichita, Kansas, but lived across the country in Washington at the time they received the news.

“I dropped the phone,” says Melissa Woods, Brandon’s mom. “Cancer is a word you never want to hear in the same sentence with your son’s name. But Dr. Singh took the time to talk with me by phone to help me understand the diagnosis and treatment plan, and I felt so much better. He made me feel much closer to home.”

Though the diagnosis was serious, Dr. Singh provided education that gave the family hope.

“He said what I had was uncommon, but very treatable,” Brandon says. “I felt like shrinking into my bed at first, but my spirits came up pretty quickly. We knew what to do. We had a plan.”

“From day 1, Brandon told me, ‘Don’t worry. I’m not letting this beat me,’” Melissa adds.

Brandon’s care plan included chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, for which his brother was his half-matched donor. The treatments offered improvements in Brandon’s condition, but didn’t fully eradicate the cancer.

“It was kind of like using hand sanitizer to kill 99.9% of germs,” Brandon says. “We killed off a lot of the cancer, but it wasn’t 100% gone.”

CAR T-cell therapy

The persistence of the leukemia cells qualified Brandon to receive the newest weapon in the cancer care arsenal: CAR T-cell therapy. This innovative precision cancer treatment represents the future of cancer care. In fact, Brandon is the cancer center’s first patient to receive FDA-approved KYMRIAH® CAR T-cell therapy for ALL.

“That’s pretty exciting,” Brandon says. “I’m not usually first at anything.”

“We are in the midst of a revolution in cancer medicine,” says Joseph McGuirk, DO, division director of hematologic malignancies and cellular therapeutics for The University of Kansas Cancer Center. “We have learned a great deal about the immune system and about how cancer cells behave. This enables personalized, precision medicine directed at the underlying biology of the individual patient and to specifics of their disease.”

In CAR T-cell treatment, T cells are extracted from the patient’s bloodstream and genetically re-engineered to recognize and attack cancer cells. The supercharged cells are reinfused into the patient, to seek and destroy cancer.

“It really is an interesting process,” Brandon points out. “It’s like a supercharged vaccine. I think it’s really cool that what the team learns from me might help make treatment better for the next person. They’re not only trying to purge cancer from my body, they’re also preparing to help the next guy in line.”

Unfortunately, the treatment did not send Brandon’s cancer into full remission. While the field’s most promising development in decades, CAR T-cell therapy is in its infancy with much still to be learned.

“We are at the very tip of a large iceberg,” says Dr. McGuirk. “CAR T-cell therapy will become safer and more effective and achieve more durable, curative response rates for more disease types. A lot of work needs to be done, but it is being done. This field will continue to explosively grow.”

The next battle

With the support of his family and care team, Brandon continued his fight. He’ll soon receive another stem cell transplant, this time from a fully matched donor. It is hoped that this procedure will at last provide the complete remission Brandon has fought for.

Compassionate care

Brandon credits both his care team and family for being by his side to give him strength and perseverance at every step of his ongoing journey.

“I no longer see doctors and nurses,” Brandon shares. “I see friends. These are people who have come to know me well, and I know I can rely on them. I am so thankful for this amazing staff. They’ve been a huge help not only to me, but to my family. And I could never forget my grandfather. He has been with me at every single appointment. He hasn’t missed a single one.”

Hope and gratitude

Brandon is eager to return to good health and a normal life.

“My normal for the last few years has been clinic and hospital visits and restrictions,” he says. “I just want to have a normal life. I’d really love to go fishing and throw some lines out and just sit for awhile.”

While Brandon’s journey has had its lows, it has brought highs as well.

“Faith has always been important to me, but this experience made it even stronger,” he says. “I know there is a plan for me, and part of it now is educating others. My hope is that people see my story and learn something that might help them. I’d like them to be able to say, ‘If he can do it, I can, too.’”

His mom added her appreciation.

“I am so thankful for everyone here who has taken such great care of Brandon,” Melissa says. “He is an all-around wonderful young man and a great kid to have, and I so appreciate the outstanding care he has received.”