A Holiday Diagnosis Upends a Young Man’s World

One week before Christmas 2023, Rohan, a resident of Mountain View, California, received a diagnosis that turned his world upside down: acute myeloid leukemia. He had been feeling rundown and fighting an ear infection, so he visited an urgent care center “because, you know, it’s Christmas and the holidays. No one wants to be sick.”

Thirty minutes after he came home, the doctor at the urgent care center called and told him to go to Stanford Hospital immediately. His holidays were spent in the hospital. “I had to pause my career, put my social plans on hold, and learn to navigate a world of transplants, immunosuppression, and survival,” he said.

Following an emergency chemotherapy regimen, Rohan was initially in remission and on track for an allogeneic transplant. But his leukemia relapsed, and his intended donor fell ill. Rohan, who is Indian American, had a unique human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, making it extremely hard to find another donor.

After consulting with his doctor, Rohan decided to undergo a double cord blood transplant. “I was given a novel combination of therapies pre-transplant, including FLAG-IDA with venetoclax, followed by an aggressive transplant strategy using double cord blood due to my racial background and being unable to find a donor,” Rohan said. “These approaches weren’t standard a decade ago. They represent real progress thanks to research.”

His treatment was not easy and there were complications, including graft-versus-host disease (in which the donor cells attack the recipient’s body), but Rohan is in remission and “regaining strength every day.” Rohan said he has a newfound appreciation for the role of scientific research, including the National Institutes of Health’s funding of basic research in areas such as stem cell transplantation.

“Investing in research is not optional; it’s lifesaving,” he said. “I’m alive today because of advances in stem cell transplants and targeted therapies. Federal programs that support patients, caregivers, and equitable access to care are the backbone of recovery. Every dollar toward science is a vote for survival, for hope, for the future.”