Bag of Cells Sent to California to Be Used to Kill Lymphoma
The return of the cells
Two weeks after they had left, Matthews’ T cells returned to him. They had been armed and trained. But he had to prepare himself as well.
He was administered three more rounds of chemotherapy. These were not intended to soften up the refractory lymphoma, but rather, exterminate his native T cells. This process is called priming and is necessary to allow the incoming T cells free reign in the bloodstream.
Dave Matthews and his T cells met each other again in a hospital visit he called “uneventful.” A simple IV procedure allowed the T cells to reenter his blood.
For the first three days, he felt no different, except for maybe being a bit tired. He wandered the halls of the hospital with his wife, determined to stay as fit as possible.
