Latest / Cyrus Webb's tracks / U. S. Soccer Legend Kasey Keller and Alex Herrera discuss cancer journey and awareness

Transcript

U. S. Soccer Legend Kasey Keller and Alex Herrera discuss cancer journey and awareness · Cyrus Webb's tracks

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  Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Conversations Live. I'm your host,
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  Speaker 1: Cyrus Webb. Glad you all could join us once again.
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  Speaker 1: For a radio audience tuning in at WYED 94.1 FM
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  Speaker 1: and WYEDonline.com, we're glad that you all can be with us. Also,
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  Speaker 1: join us online worldwide via our podcast at iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And Amazon Music.
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  Speaker 1: We're glad you all could be with us as well.
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  Speaker 1: This is part of a news segment here at WYED. Today,
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  Speaker 1: September the 15th, is recognized as World Lymphoma Day. It's
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  Speaker 1: really special not only for myself but my brother being
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  Speaker 1: diagnosed with with Hoskins Lymphoma this year, but also for
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  Speaker 1: our next two guests as well. Many people know Casey
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  Speaker 1: Keller because he, of course, is a U.S. soccer legend,
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  Speaker 1: holding the record as the most-kept goalkeeper on the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: men's national team. You also, of course, know him because
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  Speaker 1: of his work. He's been able to do the soccer
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  Speaker 1: analyst for ESPN. But what you may not know is
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  Speaker 1: that while he was in the public spotlight.
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  Speaker 2: He.
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  Speaker 1: Was privately facing cancer during his professional soccer career and
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  Speaker 1: later even as a sports broadcaster. He's now sharing his
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  Speaker 1: story about his diagnosis and private battle with a type
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  Speaker 1: of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma called large B-cell lymphoma, or LBCL. He's
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  Speaker 1: also joined today on our broadcast by Dr. Alex Herrera,
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  Speaker 1: who is joining us as a hematologist and oncologist who's
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  Speaker 1: going to talk to us more about LBCL, as well,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the early symptoms of the disease. Thanks for
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  Speaker 1: stopping by. I really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Cyrus.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: This is such an important topic. As I mentioned, my
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  Speaker 1: brother was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma this year. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: today he actually is having one of his treatments. And
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  Speaker 1: so when I found out that it was World Lymphoma
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  Speaker 1: Day and that the two of you were going to
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  Speaker 1: be on, I really appreciate this opportunity. Casey, I want
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  Speaker 1: to begin with you. Tell us when you were diagnosed
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  Speaker 1: and what you were told by doctors at the time.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had... Moved home from a long career in Europe.
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  Speaker 3: I was able to move back home to the Pacific
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  Speaker 3: Northwest at the start of the Seattle Sounders MLS. I
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  Speaker 3: signed a two-year contract. I had kind of finished that
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  Speaker 3: two-year contract. And I had more or less agreed a
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  Speaker 3: one-year extension with the Sounders. But at the end of
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  Speaker 3: that second season, I was having some hip discomfort. And
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  Speaker 3: what I didn't want to do is I didn't want
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  Speaker 3: to play my 20th season as a pro. and spend
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  Speaker 3: that whole time on the treatment table because my hip
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  Speaker 3: was just disintegrating. So I said, let's just get an MRI.
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  Speaker 3: Let's check this out before I sign a new contract.
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  Speaker 3: So I go in, I get the MRI. A couple
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  Speaker 3: hours later, I get a call from the team doc
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  Speaker 3: and he's basically like, hey, look, Casey, your hip looks okay.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we expect there to be some wear and
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  Speaker 3: tear after 700 matches in 19 seasons. But I have
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  Speaker 3: a question for you. have you had lunch yet? And
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  Speaker 3: I said, well, doc, I've had a lot of MRIs
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  Speaker 3: and nobody's ever asked me if I've had lunch yet afterwards.
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  Speaker 3: And he goes, well, we saw something else on the MRI.
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  Speaker 3: And if you hadn't had lunch yet, we want you
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  Speaker 3: to go back to the hospital and get a biopsy. Says, well,
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  Speaker 3: since you have had lunch, you're scheduled for 6 a.m.
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  Speaker 3: tomorrow morning. And you realize with the urgency that they want.
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  Speaker 2: You to go back, that they saw something clearly.
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  Speaker 3: And you have that excruciating three, four days wait for
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  Speaker 3: pathology to come back. And it's confirmed that I have non-Hodgkin's.
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  Speaker 3: So I meet with the club, kind of tell the club, hey, look,
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  Speaker 3: this is going on. But they're the only people we
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  Speaker 3: talked about. I didn't tell my parents. I didn't tell
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  Speaker 3: my kids. My wife and I just elected to keep
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  Speaker 3: this very, very private. After meeting with the oncologist, it
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  Speaker 3: was like the decision was to let's just monitor the situation.
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  Speaker 3: It was follicular lymphoma. It was very slow growing. And
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  Speaker 3: I was asymptomatic. They found this because of an MRI
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  Speaker 3: I was having for something completely unrelated. So I was
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  Speaker 3: able to go actually eight years.
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  Speaker 2: I was able to.
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  Speaker 3: Finish that final season of my career, segue into my
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  Speaker 3: broadcasting career. And then I was getting to a situation where,
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  Speaker 3: like most professional athletes, we kind of you kind of
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  Speaker 3: gain a little bit of weight after you're not going
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  Speaker 3: through the same rigorous training regime. And so I was like, okay,
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  Speaker 3: the suits are getting a little tight for the broadcast.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to kind of pick up the pace here
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  Speaker 3: a little bit. So I started losing a little weight,
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  Speaker 3: working hard. Then I started losing a little more weight
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  Speaker 3: and a little more weight. And I thought, no, this
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  Speaker 3: is too easy. So Christmas time came around and I
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  Speaker 3: ate everything in sight and still lost weight. And I
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  Speaker 3: kind of knew it was time to get back to
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  Speaker 3: the doctor and tell him things were going on. But
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  Speaker 3: then what was the final straw was I was coming
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  Speaker 3: out of the shower and my wife just was.
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  Speaker 2: Like, you have to go see the doctor.
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  Speaker 3: It really looked like the lymph nodes in my groin
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  Speaker 3: were going to come through my skin. And so that
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  Speaker 3: was when the doctor said, yes, it's time to it's
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  Speaker 3: time to start treatment.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: So how long did you undergo treatment, Casey? And how
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  Speaker 1: did that impact your personal and professional life at that time?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a very difficult treatment schedule. I have
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  Speaker 3: a first treatment, which was a combination of chemo and
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  Speaker 3: immunotherapy drug and fully expecting with the success that I
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  Speaker 3: had in my career that I'd finished the treatment schedule
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  Speaker 3: and the doctor was going to come back to me
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  Speaker 3: and just be like, hey, Casey, this is the best
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  Speaker 3: results we've ever seen. And instead... it was exactly the opposite.
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  Speaker 3: And so I went through this three, four year period
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  Speaker 3: of treatment after treatment of some success, no success, really
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  Speaker 3: good success halfway through the treatment to then at the
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  Speaker 3: end of the treatment be completely reversed. And, and so
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  Speaker 3: I went through this series after series and eventually I, I,
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  Speaker 3: A new treatment becomes FDA approved. It all aligns with
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  Speaker 3: where my cancer had transformed. And it was a CAR
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  Speaker 3: T-cell therapy called Brianzi that within 14 weeks, I was
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  Speaker 3: declared NED, no evidence of disease after having treatment after
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  Speaker 3: treatment of zero to no success. So, Dr.
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  Speaker 1: O'Reilly, I want to ask you then, because Casey just
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  Speaker 1: mentioned CAR-T cell therapy. Why was Casey a good candidate?
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  Speaker 2: Well, thrilled to be here this morning, Cyrus.
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  Speaker 4: Matt, I lead our lymphoma program out at City of
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  Speaker 4: Hope in the Los Angeles area. And just as a disclaimer,
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  Speaker 4: I'm a paid consultant for BMS, although the opinions I'll
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  Speaker 4: speak about today are all mine.
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  Speaker 2: So, CAR-T cell therapy.
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  Speaker 4: It's an immune therapy, a type of personalized immune therapy
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  Speaker 4: where we collect the patient's white blood cells, specifically their
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  Speaker 4: T cells. Our white blood cells are our immune system,
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  Speaker 4: and that's normally fighting infections. But we reprogram these T
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  Speaker 4: cells to fight the lymphoma instead of infections. And we'll
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  Speaker 4: infuse those cells back into the patient's body.
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  Speaker 2: Where they'll attack the cancer.
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  Speaker 4: And in fact, that army of lymphoma-fighting T cells will
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  Speaker 4: expand and grow as it's encountering the lymphoma in a
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  Speaker 4: patient's body. These CAR T cells, like Brionzi, can lead
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  Speaker 4: to long-term remissions in up to about 40% of patients,
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  Speaker 4: which is really a remarkable advance.
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  Speaker 2: Casey was a candidate for this therapy, Brionzi.
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  Speaker 4: Because his lymphoma had been resistant, in Casey's case, to
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  Speaker 4: many therapies, but Brionzi's FDA approved to treat a large
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  Speaker 4: B-cell lymphoma that's resistant to at least one prior line
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  Speaker 4: of therapy.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, it's.
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  Speaker 4: Important for patients to go speak to their doctor about,
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  Speaker 4: you know, this.
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  Speaker 2: Potential side effects of Brionzi.
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  Speaker 4: But, you know, typically when the lymphomas become resistant to
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  Speaker 4: our traditional therapies, it can be very difficult to achieve
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  Speaker 4: these long-term remissions. Historically, just with chemotherapies, maybe up to
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  Speaker 4: 20% of patients would have that kind of a success.
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  Speaker 4: And so really a huge advance that we can kind
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  Speaker 4: of harness the power of the patient's immune system to
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  Speaker 4: fight the lymphoma and lead to these long-term remissions.
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  Speaker 2: That we see.
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  Speaker 1: So Casey, as you mentioned for so long, you did
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  Speaker 1: not speak.
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  Speaker 2: About this publicly.
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  Speaker 1: You've now partnered with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Why are you deciding
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  Speaker 1: to raise awareness now to share your story?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I've been NED since 2021. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was something that was, you know, so private. We
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  Speaker 3: just felt that, you know, now that I've come out
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  Speaker 3: the other side and I wanted to be able to
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  Speaker 3: spread awareness for what in the end was, you know,
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  Speaker 3: for me after such a difficult journey, you know, to
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  Speaker 3: share that, that you can go through this big fight,
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  Speaker 3: that it can be very difficult, but keep fighting because
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  Speaker 3: you never know what's around the corner. And for me,
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  Speaker 3: what around the corner was really, an FDA approval of
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  Speaker 3: this CAR T cell therapy called Brianzi. And it's, it's what,
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  Speaker 3: it's what, you know, at least in my opinion, what
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  Speaker 3: gave me the opportunity to speak to you today. So
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  Speaker 3: to have that opportunity to work with, with Bristol Myers
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  Speaker 3: Squibb and to spread such big awareness, I always felt that, okay,
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  Speaker 3: I'm in media. I can just say, okay, I had cancer,
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  Speaker 3: feel sorry for me, whatever else. But I thought if, if,
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  Speaker 3: if I'm going to come public with this, I want
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  Speaker 3: to find the biggest platform possible that can help affect
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  Speaker 3: the most people dealing with this, you know, and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: sorry what your brother's going through and, and, and, but,
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  Speaker 3: but just know, be that big advocate for your brother.
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  Speaker 3: Always ask questions with the doctors, always think there's something
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  Speaker 3: else around the corner that just might be the one
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  Speaker 3: that does the trick. And for me, like I said,
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  Speaker 3: it was Brianzi and to be able to partner with
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  Speaker 3: BMS to help, spread awareness of CAR T cell therapy
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  Speaker 3: has been huge.
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  Speaker 1: So, Dr. Herrera, I really appreciate you joining us today,
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  Speaker 1: as well as you, Casey, for sharing this information with
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  Speaker 1: our audience. Where can they go for more information?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, BrianziWithin.com is a great place to start. But again,
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  Speaker 3: be your biggest advocate, look for different things, go to
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  Speaker 3: the website, talk to your oncologist. And you know, also
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  Speaker 3: there's today, funny enough, coincidentally, there's a documentary coming out
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  Speaker 3: about my journey and kind of how I went from
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  Speaker 3: my career in Europe to back home and then this
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  Speaker 3: cancer battle. So yeah, just, Always be your advocate. Always
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  Speaker 3: look for what's next. Start at brianziwithin.com. It's a good
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  Speaker 3: place to start. And talk to your doctor.
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  Speaker 2: There you go.
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  Speaker 1: Well, again, I appreciate the two of you sharing this
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  Speaker 1: important information for our audience as we recognize World Lymphoma Day.
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  Speaker 1: And looking forward to speaking to the two of you again. Great.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, Cyrus. Thanks, Cyrus.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. And we thank your audience for tuning
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  Speaker 1: in to another great segment of Conversations Live, part of
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  Speaker 1: our music and youth segment here at WYAD. Until next time,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Cyrus Webster, and as always, enjoy your day,
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  Speaker 1: enjoy your life, enjoy your world. Thank you for being
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  Speaker 1: with us here at Conversations Live, and let's go make
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  Speaker 1: today amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Take care.