OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A Colorado teacher who came to Nebraska a decade ago as a last resort is celebrating 10 years in remission from a blood cancer that doctors believed would kill her within months.
Amy Cheese, of Fort Collins, Colorado, was diagnosed with lymphoma and carried a grapefruit-sized tumor putting pressure on her heart. In 2016, she volunteered for a clinical trial at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha, becoming one of the first patients to receive CAR T-cell therapy there.
“Here we are at 10 years, and it’s wonderful,” Cheese said.
How the therapy works
CAR T-cell therapy re-engineers a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. Cheese described the process to her third-grade students this way:…