NEW ORLEANS — Last August, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced that he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Now, he’s fighting the disease with an aggressive treatment.
“The doctor told me to [go to] the hospital quickly, because my body was shutting down,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said.
After his diagnosis, he knew from the beginning that he would fight.
“We said from day one, let’s be very aggressive. We don’t want to play any games with this. Let’s get on the most aggressive plan to combat it,” Scalise said.
It was a fight that wouldn’t be easy. WWL Medical Expert Dr. Corey Hebert says the treatment is difficult.
“There won’t be anything that you would go through, that may be as hard as a stem cell or bone marrow transplant on your body,” Dr. Hebert said.
After receiving positive results from chemotherapy, doctors recommended an autologous stem cell transplant.
“Your body has to be ready for it, and fortunately, I was at a place where the doctors said I was ready to go,” Scalise said.
The treatment extracts stem cells, cleans them, and introduces high dose chemotherapy before returning the cleaned stem cells back into the body. Cancer specialist at Tulane School of Medicine, Dr. Hana Safa described the treatment as life changing.
“Introducing that kind of treatment really made a difference in the outcome of this cancer and the ability to live longer with this disease,” Dr. Safa said.
It does come with risks. By removing stem cells, it wipes out the immune system. With new treatments, experts say they try to stop infections before they happen.
“We treat it. We try to prevent it as much as possible, and now we have treatment that is more successful,” Dr. Safa said.
The House Leader has completed the extraction process and will be admitted into the hospital on Sunday for the remainder of the treatment. In the meantime, he’s staying positive.
“I’m very optimistic. This is a form of cancer that has very proven treatments that are successful,” Scalise said.
The House Leader will continue to work from home while he recovers. He plans to return to work in person next month.
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