UAMS Hosts Tribute for Myeloma Survivors
| Dec. 13, 2007 | Jeff Glanz, of Broken Arrow, Okla., was 35 years old with two young children when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
At the time, he was told he had two to four years before the rare blood cancer would take his life. Nineteen years later, he’s glad the initial prognosis was wrong and that he sought treatment at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Glanz was among 37 multiple myeloma survivors from 23 states and Canada who attended the first gathering of 10-year-plus myeloma survivors for a Dec. 1 workshop at UAMS and an evening tribute dinner at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.
The evening event included a presentation by Bart Barlogie, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy (MIRT), and testimonials from survivors. Barlogie, who has pioneered new treatments and extended survival rates to seven years and beyond, received many hugs and handshakes from grateful patients and their family members.
When Glanz was told he had two to four years by doctors in Oklahoma, “that wasn’t good enough,” he said. Rather than take their word, he found Barlogie, who in 1989 was already renowned for his myeloma treatments and had recently joined UAMS.
Glanz also learned that Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton had come to UAMS for myeloma treatment. “He could have gone anywhere in the world, but he chose UAMS,” Glanz said. “That said a lot to me.”
Glanz was among the first myeloma patients to have a bone marrow transplant, and in 1992, he began stem cell transplants.
After successful transplants as part of a treatment regimen prescribed by Barlogie, Glanz’s myeloma went into remission. The prescribed maintenance drugs became too expensive for him, however, so he quit taking them in the mid 1990s. His cancer returned in 2005, but again, treatment has worked.
Now 54, Glanz has seen his children grow up; they’re now 23 and 25.
“I’m on maintenance drugs again, and I hope to get another 20 years out of this thing,” he said. “I want to keep coming to UAMS because I think they will be the one to find a cure for us.”