Surviving Multiple Myeloma with a Clinical Trial

Teresa Staten was in her late 50's when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Multiple Myeloma in 2016. In this video she shares the story of her diagnosis and how a clinical trial has allowed her to live with a good quality of life. Learn More at www.lazarex.org.
Transcript:
This is Theresa Staten. She is a mother, a grandmother, a caregiver, a counselor to teens…AND… she is a cancer survivor. Theresa was diagnosed with Stage 3 Multiple Myeloma in 2016.
“When they said cancer, that was a shock to me because nobody in my immediate family had cancer. I didn’t even know what Multiple Myeloma was. I was scared.”
A cancer diagnosis triggers a range of emotions - suddenly pushing your life in a different direction. Here’s what Theresa’s learned from living with Multiple Myeloma and what she wants others to know.
Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer. It forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. More than 80% of patients, including Theresa, experience a complication called Myeloma bone disease, which can erode bones. This is painful and can impact one’s ability to move around.
African American patients have a higher rate of Multiple Myeloma than other ethnicities. They have higher mortality rates from this type of cancer than White Americans too.
And yet, African Americans are underrepresented in cancer clinical trials. They make up just 5% of the nation’s participants in clinical trials, which are a key way to access the newest, most innovative and most tailored treatments for a disease.
Data shows there are a number of reasons, including insurance and financial barriers, systemic bias, discrimination, health literacy, medical mistrust and more.
Theresa was diagnosed in her late 50s when a bone in her arm broke while she was moving a bag of ice. During surgery to fix her arm, doctors found cancer. From the very beginning, doctors suggested a cancer clinical trial, saying it was the best treatment.
“I was nervous when they said it was cancer, but the doctor broke it down and explained the trial to me. When she said it could prolong my life, that’s what me and my daughter wanted to hear. I said, Let’s do it.”
Theresa has been in the same clinical trial since 2016. In the beginning, she had to travel an hour and a half round trip five days a week to take a pill in her clinical trial treatment-. Costs for mileage, parking and gas added up, so she reached out to Lazarex Cancer Foundation, which reimburses cancer patients for the travel costs to get to and from clinical trials. That eliminated the financial challenges of participating in the trial and Theresa’s now been part of it for more than seven years.
Her cancer is in remission, and she feels great. She’s working three days a week helping vulnerable teens and spending a lot of time with her family.
“Without a clinical trial, your life can be taken from you too soon. I did this to prolong my life.
I’m so happy I did, and my family is too. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
To learn more about finding and accessing cancer clinical trials and how to get reimbursed for travel costs to and from, visit Lazarex.org
Thank you to Bristol Myers Squibb for sponsoring this video.