‘Coping is hard’
OSU doctor with cancer stays healthy with drug developed by colleagues
Dr. Raphael Pollock never expected he'd need the same kind of care as his patients, let alone that a drug developed in part at his own hospital would help to keep him alive. h Pollock, 70, is an oncologist and director of Ohio State University's
Comprehensive Cancer Center at the James Cancer Hospital. h In late 2017, Pollock began experiencing some abdominal pain that doctors at first attributed to pneumonia. Doctors gave him some antibiotics and sent him home for three weeks. h But, Pollock's condition worsened. When Pollock returned to the hospital, doctors found an abscess on his spleen and he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a blood cancer.
When Pollock woke up from an emergency surgery to remove the abscess, he found himself in a recovery area with many of his own patients whom he had seen just days earlier. Though Pollock was used to being the one overseeing care instead of the one undergoing it, he didn’t mind that his patients saw him.
“Three of my patients were there and saw me walking down the hall with an IV in one of those hospital gowns that I’m sure you’re aware offer a lot more coverage in the front than in the back,” Pollock joked. “They were surprised ... But, the fact that I am experiencing many of the same issues they are experiencing and am comfortable talking about it has created an additional layer.”
Since his diagnosis, Pollock has taken a pill called acalabrutinib. When he started taking the drug to slow the progression of his cancer, the medication was still in clinical trials at Ohio State.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved acalabrutinib in 2019, and Pollock continues taking it today, said Dr. Jennifer Woyach, a hematologist and oncologist at the James. While Woyach is Pollock’s colleague, she’s also became his doctor as he navigates his cancer treatment.
Acalabrutinib is a targeted therapy and works by honing in on a specific signaling molecule that prevents the proliferation of cancerous cells, including the type of leukemia Pollock has.
In the last decade, targeted drugs like acalabrutinib have largely replaced chemotherapy treatments for people with leukemia, according to the National Institutes of Health.
That may be due in part to the drug’s overall effectiveness. Four years out from diagnosis, 78% of patients treated with acalabrutinib were in remission while 25% of people treated with chemotherapy were in remission, Woyach said.
“It’s huge,” Woyach said. “It’s really been exciting and really gratifying to be able to see the things I work on make a difference.”
At any one time, Woyach said there may be 10 different clinical trials going on at Ohio State for treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The developments and research make it seem like doctors may be able to “eventually cure this disease,” Woyach said.
Although Pollock never imagined he’d become a cancer patient at the hospital he leads, another thing he never expected was that a global pandemic would force him to completely alter the way he works.
Along with cancer and the drugs to treat it comes a weakened immune system,
meaning Pollock could suffer a harsher or even life-threatening bout of COVID-19 if he contracted the new virus. That grim reality forced Pollock to mostly work from home for the past 18 months or so.
Although Pollock unexpectedly lost his wife in August 2020, his family helped him through the early days of the pandemic until he could get fully vaccinated.
Although Pollock said he’s glad to be back at the hospital some days, working from home gave him yet another way to relate to his patients.
He held appointments with patients through video calls. During those appointments, he spoke with patients not only about the status of their cancer but also related to them about what it’s been like living in isolation during the pandemic.
At this point, Pollock said many of his patients have his cell phone number and know how to reach him at any time if they need to.
“We have to keep trying to push on forward... coping is hard” Pollock said. “I’m going to be involved in caring for patients over a long period of time and (having cancer myself) enables me in some ways to really transcend the patient doctor relationship.” mfilby@dispatch.com @Maxfilby