Football Coordinator With Leukemia Finds Winning Team at CU Cancer Center

Matt Lubick had completed marathons earlier than, however none was so personally significant because the 26-mile distance he lined in someday whereas being handled for leukemia at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. Lubick walked dozens of laps across the facility, wheeling his IV pole up and down the corridors as day slowly turned to nighttime exterior the tall glass home windows.

“It was my first day of chemotherapy, and it felt actually good to stroll,” Lubick says. “My medical doctors gave me quite a lot of hope and confidence going into this, which I didn’t essentially have earlier than. They made me really feel like, ‘You are not a statistic, you are an individual. You are in actually good condition, and issues are going to be OK.’ When somebody believes in you, it offers you hope. It offers you power.”

What began as a technique to stretch his legs throughout remedy turned a private problem for Lubick when a hospital staffer talked about that one other affected person had walked the size of a marathon all through the hospital years in the past. Lubick got down to see if he may do the identical.

It was a mirrored image of the form of individual Lubick is, says University of Colorado Cancer Center member And PollyeaMD, MS, who was a part of Lubick’s remedy workforce.

“There are unhealthy coping mechanisms, and there are wholesome coping mechanisms, and it’s a fairly wholesome coping mechanism to say, ‘I am on this horrible scenario, however not solely am I going to remain constructive, I will problem myself,’” says Pollyea, professor of hematology within the CU School of Medicine. “Matt mentioned, ‘I will do one thing that I like to do, I am not going to let the constraints of being within the hospital impression me, I will do what I all the time do, which is rise up and transfer. I will set a purpose and meet it.’ I am certain that helped him adapt to his scenario.”

Diagnosing a thriller sickness

For Lubick, who simply took a new job as offensive coordinator for the College of Nevada soccer program (he’s the son of former Colorado State College soccer coach Sonny Lubick), that scenario started in August 2023, whereas he was coaching for one more marathon. Lingering fatigue and a collection of low-grade fevers prompted Lubick to see his physician, who at first suspected a viral an infection due to low blood cell counts. Lubick, who then lived in Fort Collins, spent a number of days within the hospital, however even after he was discharged, his white blood cell counts remained dangerously low.

Lubick on the end line of the 2023 Boston Marathon.

His medical doctors ultimately ordered a bone marrow biopsy, which led to a analysis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood cancer that begins within the bone marrow. He was referred to the CU Most cancers Middle for remedy — particularly to Pollyea, who’s overseeing an active clinical trial of a medicine referred to as venetoclax, together with a low dose of the chemotherapy drug azacitidine, for sufferers with AML.

“We’ve discovered that this routine is ready to goal the leukemia stem cell inhabitants — the foundation reason behind the illness,” Pollyea says. “In the event you consider leukemia like a weed, there’s the flower half, like a dandelion, that chemotherapy can are available and mow over. Possibly you do not see it anymore, however the roots are nonetheless there. Venetoclax with low-dose chemotherapy has the potential to get on the roots of the illness, and in case you can pull up the roots of the illness, you may get a long-term remission or perhaps a remedy.”

Remission achieved

Lubick went into remission simply two weeks after beginning the remedy and was capable of go house after the chemotherapy portion, whereas nonetheless taking the venetoclax, which is a tablet sufferers take orally. He says he feels lucky to have been handled by his CU Most cancers Middle workforce that included Pollyea and Christine McMahonMD, assistant professor of hematology.

“It was an actual blessing that I used to be capable of be a part of that trial and to have the management of Dr. McMahon and Dr. Pollyea to advise me to be on it,” he says. “I had no expertise to evaluate it on, nevertheless it could not have been more practical. I can not emphasize sufficient how properly I felt whereas I used to be on it.”

McMahon says that for a younger, match affected person like Lubick, the venetoclax-azacitidine mixture permits for way more exercise throughout remedy.

“If he had gotten the standard intensive chemotherapy, he would have needed to keep within the hospital for a month,” she says. “With this medical trial routine, he was capable of go house after the primary week of remedy, and he stayed extraordinarily energetic all through his remedy.”

On to transplant

The ultimate step in Lubick’s remedy was a stem cell transplant, which was carried out in December 2023 at UCHealth College of Colorado Hospital. The haploidentical or “haplo” transplant, which used a mixture of wire blood and donated blood from Lubick’s sister, was overseen by CU Most cancers Middle member Jonathan GutmanMD, professor of hematology.

Lubick in his hospital room along with his sister, who served as a donor for his stem cell transplant.

Although the treatment mixture put him into remission, McMahon says, a stem cell transplant replaces the recipient’s blood and bone marrow with donor cells. This not solely ensured that the leukemia cells had been gone from his system, nevertheless it additionally basically supplied him with a brand new immune system that may forestall the leukemia from coming again.

“The venetoclax-azacitidine routine was initially studied within the aged inhabitants, and lots of of these sufferers usually are not candidates for stem cell transplant,” McMahon says. “There may be an choice to proceed venetoclax indefinitely for sufferers who proceed to answer remedy, and it is attainable that it would be capable to remedy a small proportion of sufferers with AML. There are experiences of long-term survivors who’ve been capable of cease this remedy and not using a stem cell transplant and haven’t relapsed. However that is not nearly all of folks. For a youthful, match affected person like Matt, a transplant is the most effective likelihood for long-term remedy of his leukemia.”

All informed, Lubick was within the hospital for 32 days whereas receiving the stem cell transplant, and he needed to stay inside a 30-mile radius of the hospital for 2 months after that. Other than an intense fever that may be a frequent facet impact of the transplant, he got here via the process simply wonderful, McMahon says.

“He’ll nonetheless want common monitoring, with bloodwork and a few occasional bone marrow biopsies, however the frequency of his visits actually decreases now that he’s doing properly.”

Look on the intense facet

Lubick is aware of that not each affected person with AML comes via remedy with the identical constructive outcomes he has. And whereas his most cancers journey has had its share of struggles, it has had its vibrant spots as properly, he says.

“There are some issues I’m grateful for due to this,” he says. “My religion has been strengthened, and I wanted that to occur. My priorities have shifted — issues I used to assume had been essential, or that harassed me out, do not stress me out and are not that essential. I’ve much more appreciation for all times. My relationships with family and friends have turn into stronger via this.

Lubick along with his dad and mom.

“I’ve had a singular alternative to speak to so many individuals due to my expertise — folks have reached out to assist me that I did not know,” he provides. “It has been very humbling. I am hoping down the road that I can assist different folks in the identical method persons are serving to me proper now. There’s a bodily half to therapeutic, which is an enormous deal, however there’s a psychological and non secular a part of it too. Adversity is inevitable, however being depressing is non-obligatory.”