Myeloma Patient Celebrates Full Remission by Walking Daughter Down the Aisle
| Dave Puente of Elk Grove California, the first myeloma patient in Arkansas to receive the new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) last November, recently saw a very personal goal he’d set for himself become a reality.
Late last year, during an interview for an article that appeared recently in the Myeloma magazine about his revolutionary treatment in November, Puente shared his ambitions for his daughter’s forthcoming wedding celebration.
Dave Puente, joined by his physician, Frits van Rhee, M.D., Ph.D., and Puente’s wife Lori, begins receiving his (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy treatment last November.
“She wants me to walk her down the aisle and to dance with her,” Puente said then. “And I’m planning to do both.”
Dave Puente’s daughter, Montana Puente Frazier, who lives and works in Maryland, had to cancel her West Coast wedding last fall due to fires in the area. Instead, she and her fiancé, Jeffers Frazier, got married at a city hall near Annapolis, Maryland. Meanwhile, in Little Rock, Arkansas, her dad was making a special vow of his own — that he would walk his daughter down the aisle and dance with her at the rescheduled celebration in South Lake Tahoe, California, come spring.
The father of the bride made good on both vows. After 14-plus years of battling myeloma, Puente went into full remission, just in time for his special father-daughter moment.
Dave Puente made some vows of his own last fall, pledging to walk his daughter down the aisle and to share a dance with her at her spring wedding celebration.
“The myeloma is undetectable now,” Puente’s wife, Lori, said recently. “He’s no longer using a cane, he feels great and his energy is increasing exponentially.”
“Postponing our wedding celebration was tough, but it was the biggest blessing in disguise,” said Montana Frazier, adding that her parents would not have been able to attend the original wedding in September.
“Right after we announced the change to our guests, my dad fell and broke his femur, underwent emergency surgery and was not able to walk,” Frazier said.
Puente’s physician at UAMS, Frits van Rhee, M.D., Ph.D., needed him in Little Rock as soon as possible to begin his CAR T-Cell immunotherapy treatment. He and his wife made it to Arkansas as quickly as possible.
“I was very pleased to be able to offer Dave this novel immunotherapy, which takes the patient’s own immune cells and genetically re-programs the cells to attack the myeloma,” van Rhee said. “I am very excited that Dave tolerated the treatment well and that he has had an excellent response to it.”
At present, the treatment is offered to patients who have relapsed myeloma after four lines of other therapy.
“Several other patients have received this new immunotherapy with equally excellent results,” van Rhee said, adding that a new clinical trials program opening in 2023 will offer this treatment to patients as a front-line option.
“I am very grateful to Dr. van Rhee and the expert medical team at UAMS that provided the care while I was undergoing a modern medical miracle cancer treatment,” Puente said. “The successful treatment allowed me to fulfill my dream of walking my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. It was one of the most joyous and thankful days of my life.”
Puente’s daughter added that her father’s improved health only made her West Coast wedding even more special.
“The successful treatment allowed me to fulfill my dream of walking my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day,” Puente said. “It was one of the most joyous and thankful days of my life.”
“The stars were aligned on May 7, and it was everything we wished for, and so much more,” Frazier said of the celebration dubbed The Frazier 2.0.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you to UAMS for the care and diligence you provided to my dad and our family,” Frazier said. “We danced with the greatest joy in the world in celebration of our growing family, happy, healthy and together.”