Hello Everyone,
I am finally in a position to be able to share the news about the next phase of my treatment plan for Richter’s Syndrome.
As many of you will already know, I have been receiving sustained chemotherapy since May of this year to try and attain a complete remission in order to have a Stem Cell Transplant from an unrelated matched donor.
My most recent PET Scan has revealed to the Multi Disciplinary Team at The Christie Hospital in Manchester, that I have not been able to achieve the complete remission status required for me to have a stem cell transplant at the moment.
Despite the best efforts of all concerned, and having had to endure two different regimens of Chemotherapy, the aggressive and fast moving nature of the Richter’s disease has meant that the clinical team at The Christie have had to take the decision to pursue a new way forward to try to eradicate my cancer. My next step now, is to have a revolutionary advanced therapy called CAR-T in the New Year.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell
When first trialled between 2011 and 2017, CAR-T was described as the ‘Transplant of the Future’ by the Director of Lymphoma Research Stephen J. Schuster, at the Abramson Cancer Center in Pennsylvania, USA. This incredible, futuristic treatment is now being made available to me via The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
CAR-T is one the original ‘optimistic options’ that were mentioned to Jules and I in the very first days of our relationship with the haematology team at The Christie.
I am fortunate to now have access to this ground breaking new therapy. Back in May, I was at first deemed ineligible because of the negative statistics and poor prognosis surrounding Richter’s Syndrome, but thankfully it has been determined that I am now eligible for this potentially life saving therapy.
Now I am in the so called “last chance saloon,” I am grateful to have this opportunity to live.
I will spend the next four weeks preparing to enter hospital in the New Year. Part of my preparation for what I know will be a challenging time in 2025, will be the four Red Residency gigs in my home village of Dyserth, North Wales throughout December. As you know, music keeps me strong!
The actual CAR-T Therapy process reads like something out of science fiction. In the coming days and weeks, my blood will be harvested via a process known as Apharesis and then my T-Cells will be sent to a laboratory overseas to be re-engineered and re-encoded by a specialist scientist under laboratory conditions. I will also have to undertake some form of bridging therapy to suppress the Richter’s while this process takes place.
Beginning in December and over a period of approximately three weeks, My T-Cells will be reconfigured to specifically target the Richter’s Syndrome cancer cells that are currently attacking me so viciously.
Once delivered back to the Christie in early January, they will then be transplanted into my immune system and go straight to work on killing the cells associated with Richter’s Syndrome.
CAR-T therapy is not without risk, and I have been advised that I will stay in a special isolation unit at The Christie for at least thirty days while the CAR-T works its magic. I will also have to be conditioned beforehand with high intensity chemotherapy in order to create space for the new Super Cells.
CAR-T is a highly intensive process and I will be monitored at all times to safeguard against the worst of the side effects that such an invasive treatment can unleash at any moment. I still have the option of a Stem Cell Transplant in the future and so the search for suitable unrelated matched donor continues.
It’s therefore vitally important that we keep up the momentum of our One in a Million campaign to increase the number of registered stem cell donors; it’s not just me who is undertaking life saving treatments and searching for a potential donor. There are thousands of people who need a stranger to survive, and not all of them will be eligible for CAR-T as I am.
I am eternally grateful for the support of everyone who has been to the concerts since this terrible ordeal began. Playing music has kept me mentally focused throughout, and I want to thank everyone who has since signed up to the Stem Cell Donor Registry via Love Hope Strength and our life saving partnership with DKMS. Let’s keep going with getting more people on the list!
Rest assured that I am prepared and ready for the transformation that I hope CAR-T will give me. A new life and a new beginning beckons.
In 2014, while addressing delegates at the World Cancer Congress in Melbourne Australia, I said that “In 1995, I didn’t see cancer coming but at the same time, cancer didn’t see Mike Peters coming either.”
In 2025, I will have been living with the disease for thirty years and in all that time I have had to face the fact that my form of Leukaemia was incurable.
Now, following the unexpected Richters’s Transformation and the new intervention of CAR-T, I have a 40% chance of being cured.
Bring it on.
Mike Peters
1st December 2024
