ANNOUNCER: Eileen Merle-Rao is many things: a singer as well as the driving force behind an annual medieval festival in New York City. She is also a 37-year-old woman with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: When I was diagnosed with the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, all three doctors that I saw agreed that I had had it for about four and a half years, which meant at this point now, I've had it for nine years.
ANNOUNCER: With the support of her husband, Eileen started on Rituxan, a therapy using antibodies, which circulate through the bloodstream and attack foreign substances. These were specifically created to target cancer cells. The therapy seemed to have relatively few side effects.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I would sort of get, flulike symptoms for about a half an hour during it, but by the time I got home I was fine. I don't think I really started seeing side effects until the chemotherapy.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen's treatment combined Rituxan and chemotherapy. The chemotherapy was an upsetting wakeup call.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I figured if the hair fell out because of the chemotherapy, I could handle two inches of hair on the pillow. I could not handle two feet worth of hair on the pillow. And I literally cut off 22 inches of hair the night before. Obviously — Sorry. It's an emotional thing.
ANNOUNCER: The chemotherapy's other side effects were difficult, especially for a singer.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I have a tendency to have very, weak vocal cords, and I got such a case of bronchitis. I didn't speak, literally did not speak a word for nine weeks. So it was not only the physical side effects, but the emotional side effects, as well, and not knowing what your future is going to be, saying, "How long is this going to take to get my life back?"
ANNOUNCER: That first round of treatment put Eileen in remission for almost two and a half years, but it didn't last.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: On September 7th, 2001, I found out that the cancer had come back, and I was just at the point when I thought the doctor was going to give me the OK to get pregnant. That was emotionally a mess, too.
ANNOUNCER: The second round of Rituxan with chemotherapy only held off the cancer for eight months. It was then that Eileen's doctors suggested a radioimmunotherapy called Zevalin. Like Rituxan, this new form of treatment also uses antibodies specific to the cancer cells. The difference is this therapy has radiation particles attached to it, which provides an extra punch in destroying cancer cells.
STEPHANIE GREGORY, MD: The patient who is appropriate for radioimmune therapy is essentially a patient who has relapsed following initial therapy for a low-grade lymphoma. The FDA has actually approved Zevalin for rituximab-refractory patients, which means that they have been exposed to Rituxan, perhaps did not respond to that, and then they are a candidate for Zevalin.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: The second time that I was on the chemotherapy and once that failed, my doctor had just heard about this new drug, and he felt that I was a perfect candidate for it.
And I was fascinated that something like this was a possibility for me. It scared me. It definitely did. But on the other hand, I had gone through chemo twice and gotten pretty sick after that.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen, who had been used to lengthy treatments, was pleasantly surprised by radioimmunotherapy.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: My first round of chemo was, what, six, seven months. My second round was four months, and this was basically a week and a half. And I looked at the doctor and I said, "Is that it?" And he's like, "Yeah."
ANNOUNCER: With this new course of therapy, Eileen did experience a temporary lowering of her white blood count. But as her doctors had predicted, after six weeks or so, levels returned to normal. It was just in time for Eileen to oversee the medieval festival on which she works tirelessly.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: The fact that I was there and I had gotten all the work done was amazing to me, that I had gotten it all done while in treatment.
I pretty much didn't have a life on the chemotherapy, and I actually could have some sort of life with the radiation. And that was exciting.
ANNOUNCER: The success rate of radioimmunotherapy for people like Eileen is promising.
STEPHEN SCHUSTER, MD: In the patients that were used in the early clinical trials, these were patients that received radioimmunotherapy after having had multiple prior therapies that either worked for a period of time and then failed or failed altogether. And quite remarkably, overall response rates to the radioimmunotherapy were about 70 percent in patients that had failed their preceding therapy. And I think that that's impressive for a group of patients who've failed multiple prior therapies.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen and her doctors were certainly pleased with her results.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: Both my oncologist and the nuclear medical doctor were very, very pleased with the results. There were still a few lymph nodes which were enlarged, but they'd already been through cancer. This could be scar tissue. It was not necessarily the cancer.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen had had little hope for keeping her disease at bay, but now her attitude has changed.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: Now that I've gone through the radioimmunotherapy, I have a tendency to be more hopeful that the cancer won't come back. I am definitely hopeful that it will keep it away, if not indefinitely, then definitely for longer periods of time. So I won't have to come in every three years for an oil change and a tune-up.
ANNOUNCER: And while Eileen's life was once on hold, now she sees a future filled with possibility.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: We froze seven embryos shortly after we got married before the chemotherapy, and so I still have hopes of having a family. I would really like to get my singing career back together. I enjoy directing, but I would really like to get my singing career and my acting career back together.
Now I can understand how some people can go through cancer treatments and still have a life.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: When I was diagnosed with the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, all three doctors that I saw agreed that I had had it for about four and a half years, which meant at this point now, I've had it for nine years.
ANNOUNCER: With the support of her husband, Eileen started on Rituxan, a therapy using antibodies, which circulate through the bloodstream and attack foreign substances. These were specifically created to target cancer cells. The therapy seemed to have relatively few side effects.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I would sort of get, flulike symptoms for about a half an hour during it, but by the time I got home I was fine. I don't think I really started seeing side effects until the chemotherapy.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen's treatment combined Rituxan and chemotherapy. The chemotherapy was an upsetting wakeup call.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I figured if the hair fell out because of the chemotherapy, I could handle two inches of hair on the pillow. I could not handle two feet worth of hair on the pillow. And I literally cut off 22 inches of hair the night before. Obviously — Sorry. It's an emotional thing.
ANNOUNCER: The chemotherapy's other side effects were difficult, especially for a singer.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: I have a tendency to have very, weak vocal cords, and I got such a case of bronchitis. I didn't speak, literally did not speak a word for nine weeks. So it was not only the physical side effects, but the emotional side effects, as well, and not knowing what your future is going to be, saying, "How long is this going to take to get my life back?"
ANNOUNCER: That first round of treatment put Eileen in remission for almost two and a half years, but it didn't last.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: On September 7th, 2001, I found out that the cancer had come back, and I was just at the point when I thought the doctor was going to give me the OK to get pregnant. That was emotionally a mess, too.
ANNOUNCER: The second round of Rituxan with chemotherapy only held off the cancer for eight months. It was then that Eileen's doctors suggested a radioimmunotherapy called Zevalin. Like Rituxan, this new form of treatment also uses antibodies specific to the cancer cells. The difference is this therapy has radiation particles attached to it, which provides an extra punch in destroying cancer cells.
STEPHANIE GREGORY, MD: The patient who is appropriate for radioimmune therapy is essentially a patient who has relapsed following initial therapy for a low-grade lymphoma. The FDA has actually approved Zevalin for rituximab-refractory patients, which means that they have been exposed to Rituxan, perhaps did not respond to that, and then they are a candidate for Zevalin.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: The second time that I was on the chemotherapy and once that failed, my doctor had just heard about this new drug, and he felt that I was a perfect candidate for it.
And I was fascinated that something like this was a possibility for me. It scared me. It definitely did. But on the other hand, I had gone through chemo twice and gotten pretty sick after that.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen, who had been used to lengthy treatments, was pleasantly surprised by radioimmunotherapy.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: My first round of chemo was, what, six, seven months. My second round was four months, and this was basically a week and a half. And I looked at the doctor and I said, "Is that it?" And he's like, "Yeah."
ANNOUNCER: With this new course of therapy, Eileen did experience a temporary lowering of her white blood count. But as her doctors had predicted, after six weeks or so, levels returned to normal. It was just in time for Eileen to oversee the medieval festival on which she works tirelessly.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: The fact that I was there and I had gotten all the work done was amazing to me, that I had gotten it all done while in treatment.
I pretty much didn't have a life on the chemotherapy, and I actually could have some sort of life with the radiation. And that was exciting.
ANNOUNCER: The success rate of radioimmunotherapy for people like Eileen is promising.
STEPHEN SCHUSTER, MD: In the patients that were used in the early clinical trials, these were patients that received radioimmunotherapy after having had multiple prior therapies that either worked for a period of time and then failed or failed altogether. And quite remarkably, overall response rates to the radioimmunotherapy were about 70 percent in patients that had failed their preceding therapy. And I think that that's impressive for a group of patients who've failed multiple prior therapies.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen and her doctors were certainly pleased with her results.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: Both my oncologist and the nuclear medical doctor were very, very pleased with the results. There were still a few lymph nodes which were enlarged, but they'd already been through cancer. This could be scar tissue. It was not necessarily the cancer.
ANNOUNCER: Eileen had had little hope for keeping her disease at bay, but now her attitude has changed.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: Now that I've gone through the radioimmunotherapy, I have a tendency to be more hopeful that the cancer won't come back. I am definitely hopeful that it will keep it away, if not indefinitely, then definitely for longer periods of time. So I won't have to come in every three years for an oil change and a tune-up.
ANNOUNCER: And while Eileen's life was once on hold, now she sees a future filled with possibility.
EILEEN MERLE-RAO: We froze seven embryos shortly after we got married before the chemotherapy, and so I still have hopes of having a family. I would really like to get my singing career back together. I enjoy directing, but I would really like to get my singing career and my acting career back together.
Now I can understand how some people can go through cancer treatments and still have a life.