NEW ORLEANS — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise gave an update on his cancer treatment on Thursday.
Scalise says that treatments have dropped his cancer dramatically and that his doctor has said he could return to work. He was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer, at the end of August.
"I have made a decision to aggressively pursue it. And I'm a month into the treatments, you know, and the way that it works with this form of cancer is it goes in about a little over three weeks, three and a half weeks of treatments. And then they want to evaluate and see how your body is responding. If they need to make tweaks. And then you go to another three-and-a-half week round of treatment for a period of months until they feel like you don't need to take the treatments anymore because you have adequately attacked the cancer," Scalise said. "So we're a month in now. Last week I did a full round of evaluations. That's where I was working with my doctors, running a whole lot of tests. They came back with the tests. The good news is the cancer has dropped dramatically because of the success of the chemotherapy attacking the cancer. So, thank God those prayers have been answered. We're continuing to follow my doctor's advice. And my doctor said you can come back to work."
He announced that he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer at the end of August.
So, what is multiple myeloma? LSU Health hematologist and oncologist Dr. Suki Subbiah said it's not leukemia, which is blood cancer, and it’s not lymphoma. It is a cancer of one of the immune system cells, the plasma cells, in the bone marrow.
“Plasma cells, their main function is to produce antibodies, which help fight off certain infections that the body has already seen in the past,” Dr. Subbiah explained.
Symptoms of multiple myeloma include:
- Bone pain
- Numbness, tingling in the nerves of the hands, and feet
- Weight loss
- Decreased appetite
- Fatigue, lack of energy
- Low white blood cells
- Lingering infections
The cancer is considered a chronic condition. There is no cure, but there are pills, I.V.s, and injections that can keep putting a person back into remission.
For most patients, the cause is unknown. The gunshots that Scalise survived six years ago during a domestic terrorist shooting at a Virginia baseball field are not considered a risk factor. The doctor says people can do their normal routines during treatment, because there are few side effects.
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