Joe’s Cancer Battle

Hi! My name is Jeanine and I am fundraising for my friend Lisa Burghardts husband, Joe Burghardt, so that he can continue his battle against mantle cell lymphoma. The financial burden that comes along with the diagnosis of cancer, even for the insured, can be significant. To name a few, the cost of flights across the country to receive the right medical care, the hotel stays, and the non-covered therapies to treat your cancer that you can only receive if you can afford them. Lisa and Joe have always been people to donate to help others but never thought they’d find themselves on the other end. It’s a burden no one fighting cancer should have to carry. If you are able, please consider donating to help this beautiful kind family.

Joe’s Story

(written by his loving wife, Lisa)

Joe had a lump on his neck that he thought was harmless. It had been there for a few years, and his family practice doctor said it wasn’t anything to worry about so Joe didn’t think much of it. He finally got the lump removed on Nov 14, 2022. The ENT who removed the lump called on 11/21, a day before Joe’s 57th birthday, to say it was mantle cell lymphoma. MCL is a rare, aggressive form of B Cell Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. (approximately 1 in 200,000, median age at diagnosis 67 yrs) Joe had been really healthy his whole life, and hadn’t ever taken any medications other than over the counter pain relievers, so the diagnosis was quite a shock! We were referred to a heme onc at a nearby cancer center. (100 miles away) They determined that Joe’s MCL was Stage IVB but wanted to “wait and watch.” We went to another clinic for a second opinion. The heme onc there thought Joe should be treated right away but wanted to wait a few months because of the results of the Triangle Study that were presented at ASH 2022. She felt that ibrutinib would soon get first-line approval in the US due to the positive results from the study. We weren’t comfortable waiting months for a treatment to be approved when there were no guarantees that would ever happen. We then got a third opinion, and they had an open label study available where one of the arms of the study included the BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib. We were excited that he could potentially get a BTK inhibitor, but later found out that Joe was randomized to the standard chemo arm…no acalabrutinib. Lisa called MD Anderson first thing the next morning (March 21, 2023) to explain Joe’s situation. They said they could see him in a month, but Lisa explained that he would start chemo in two days if there was no better option before then. MD Anderson arranged for a virtual nurse visit an hour later and our first virtual visit with Dr. Preetesh Jain was an hour after that. Everything happened really fast! We flew to Houston five days later so Joe could get all the necessary testing. He had a PET Scan, bone marrow biopsy, lymph node biopsy, colonoscopy, upper and lower GI biopsies and lots of bloodwork. Joe took it all in stride. He’s naturally a very positive person and is super easy going. Joe and Lisa’s four children knew to go to their dad when they were younger and wanted permission for anything!

Dr. Jain recommended the WINDOW 2 regimen, which includes daily oral ibritinib with monthly rituximab infusions. Joe’s first infusion was on Thursday, March 30th. We’re very thankful that the infusions can be done at a cancer center that’s 100 miles from our home, rather than having to travel to Houston every month. Treatments have been going well for Joe so far. He’s in his first remission! They added oral venetoclax a week ago and other than his blood sugar being consistently low, he’s tolerating the additional therapy really well. Joe loves to tell people that he falls into the “YOUNG, healthy” patient group, even though he’s 57. He has obviously maintained his sense of humor!

He’s felt well enough to fish, hunt or golf most days, so his summer has been fairly normal other than the trips to Houston. Joe will start more intensive treatments in November or December. They plan to do four rounds of R-hyper CVAD chemo to hopefully give him a more durable remission. This regimen is given over four to five days in the hospital. Dr. Jain wants him to stay in the hospital in Houston for four months, until all four rounds are done and his blood counts are safe for him to fly back home. It will be difficult being away from home and from our family for that long, but we know everything will work out the way it’s supposed to. We live on a farm, with horses, dogs and cats. We’re hoping to find someone to stay at our farm while we’re gone to take care of all the animals. We’re doing our best to take things one day at a time. Each day is a blessing!