On Borrowed Time: Trial cancer treatment gives Lake Jackson woman seven months cancer-free

Cherie Rineker shows off a painting her daughter, Angelina, made of the show “Supernatural” on Oct. 12. Her daughter enjoys painting and is markedly shy. As Rineker has regained health, she’s noticed her daughter struggling with anxiety as a result of her illness.

LAKE JACKSON — Cherie Rineker finally felt like she figured out all the secrets to life,

happiness and love when she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare, incurable

cancer of germ-fighting plasma cells. After almost six years of immense suffering and

treatments that didn’t work, she is celebrating seven months of being cancer-free after

participating in an experimental cancer treatment — chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or

CAR T-cell.

“On my bone marrow, PET scans and blood work, as far as they can tell, there is no

cancer,” Rineker said. “But this isn’t a miracle. People are relapsing from it. But it’s given

me seven months cancer-free. The chemotherapy never gave me a break.”

Rineker heard about the treatment by chance while watching a report on Vice News.

Upon hearing a woman’s testimonial in the report that the treatment had given her five

years free of cancer, Rineker immediately started researching it. She had recently gone

into remission again and said she was fed up with chemotherapy and the numerous

medications she was taking.

Already in excruciating pain despite being on dozens of medications, her husband

packed her into the car with several pillows to make her as comfortable as possible.

Then, they drove 827 miles to the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Tennessee. At the

time, it was the only hospital offering CAR T-cell trials that would accept patients in a

condition as severe as hers.

“At first, I was just in such a honeymoon phase and just so thrilled to be alive. A lot of

patients always say, as soon as they’re in remission, they’re just waiting for the other

shoe to drop but not me,” Rineker said about her experience after the treatment.

For the treatment, doctors draw blood from a patient suffering from cancer to remove all

T-cells, types of cells that identify and attack invasions in the body as part of the immune

system’s response. The cells are then genetically modified and “weaponized” with the

chimeric antigen receptor which allow them to identify, attack and eliminate cancer cells.

“I like to describe it as harnessing the powers of the immune system but doing it in a

science-fiction, incredible kind of way,” Dr. Jason Westin, a hematologist and oncologist

at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said. “Cells are re-infused back into the

patient and can see cancer as a foreign invader and can fight and continue to attack until

nothing is left.”

MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is the closest hospital offering CAR T-cell trials.

Due to the cost and potential risk of the treatment, only major research hospitals can

afford to run the trials according to Westin. Patients also have to meet certain

requirements to be accepted into the trials. It varies by hospital but at MD Anderson,

patients can’t have gone through remission and other treatments more than twice

according to Westin. This is because chemotherapy wears out the immune system and

CAR T-cell is very harsh on the immune system.

“The toxicities can be significant. We don’t want to treat somebody who is already in

terrible shape because they might not do well,” Westin said. “What happens is cells call

for reinforcement by making copies of themselves causing T-cells to rapidly explode.

When that happens, it dumps a lot of chemicals in the body. People may have to go to

the ICU for low blood pressure or organ dysfunction and can have brain toxicity that

causes seizures.”

The side effect is called a cytokine release storm. Since the side effect is so deadly, it

took a while for the Food and Drug Administration to approve of the treatment meaning

insurance companies wouldn’t cover it. Now, it is FDA approved, though there is still no

guarantee insurance companies will cover it. For those without insurance, the cost is in

the hundreds of thousands.

Despite the risks, those who do participate in the trials have anywhere from a 50 to 80

percent chance of successfully becoming cancer-free. The number varies so widely

because it depends on the specific type of cancer a patient has and the exact trial. Still,

Rineker said it’s worth the risk and painful side effects.

“Amazingly, the pain is almost gone. I had to ween myself off of the stronger pain

medications but I haven’t taken any in five months. I was on so many medications and

currently, I’m hardly on any. With chemo, if I went into remission, I still have to do

maintenance basically forever but with this trial, not only am I cancer free but I’m chemo

free,” the former flight attendant said.

Early trials for the treatment primarily focused on only a few cancers, especially pediatric

leukemia and adult lymphomas, both being two types of blood cancers, but now are

focused on a large facet of cancers. Many hospitals are developing new versions of the

treatment specialized to a vast array of cancer types, like brain cancer, some of which

are showing promising results according to Westin.

While the treatment has given her seven months cancer-free, multiple myeloma cancer

has altered Rineker’s life forever. Before she was diagnosed, her dream was to open a

health spa to help cure for others suffering from diseases like diabetes, or cancer. Now,

she has no hope of that happening. On top of that, it has left her and her daughter with

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, an anxiety disorder that develops after extreme trauma

like surviving cancer or a car accident.

“Every little ache I feel in my bones, I’m afraid if it’s the cancer coming back. My

daughter, she held it together from age seven to age 12 but now, she gets very afraid of

getting sick,” Rineker said. “It has definitely left its scars and mark on us so we will

probably carry it with us forever. Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient.”

Despite the help of the CAR T-cell treatment, Rineker still has ten more months to go

before she can be officially deemed cancer-free since multiple myeloma has an average

17-month period where remission can still happen. She also wrote a book, “A Pilgrimage

Without End: How Cancer Healed My Broken Heart”, about her life over all and her

battle with cancer.