Steve Ross Conquers his Mountain

Imagine standing on top of a remote mountain. Now imagine night falling with a ferocious blizzard approaching. Descending in the dark might be risky, but staying and facing the blizzard would be fatal.

That's how Steve Ross pictured his predicament as he considered whether to undergo a bone-marrow transplant to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Ross knew the transplant would be risky, but after three unsuccessful experiences with chemotherapy, he was convinced that declining the transplant would be fatal.

"I had come to the realization that I was probably going to die," he recalled. "I had reached the point where conventional treatment was not going to work. It would knock the cancer down, but it would always come back, each time a little sooner."

So, five years after first being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Ross turned to the bone-marrow transplant team at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to do what doctors had been unable to accomplish with conventional treatment — drive away the cancer for good.

At that time, only a handful of people with Ross's subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had received bone-marrow transplants and most had not survived. "I knew there was a great risk that I might not survive the transplant process," he said.

Ross, a Seattle attorney, said the hardest part was writing a letter to leave behind for his then 6-year-old daughter, Katie, in case he died. "She knew I was sick," he said, "but I had never talked to her about dying."

Today, Ross is no longer certain where the letter is, "which is probably good because that means it's all in the past." All he knows for sure is he's thankful the letter never had to be delivered. "The transplant saved my life," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind."

As each experience with chemotherapy produced shorter and shorter remissions, Ross feared his days were numbered. Even so, he never gave up. What kept him going was the prospect of scientists developing a new and better treatment in time to save his life. "I had always hoped technology would improve and they'd come up with something that would be able to cure this," he said.

Fortunately for Ross, that's exactly what happened. Building on its success treating leukemia patients with bone-marrow transplants, the Hutchinson Center had begun collaborating with the University of Washington to determine whether transplants could be equally effective against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Even though that approach was still considered by some to be experimental, Ross felt he was in no position to wait. "I was in pretty good physical shape at that point and the size of my tumors were fairly small," he said. "I wanted to be strong enough to survive the transplant."

Ross's sister was his donor and it wasn't long before his new marrow began producing healthy blood cells. "The transplant went very smoothly," Ross said. "And the staff and doctors were so caring. I was treated with dignity and respect."

Looking back, Ross recalls his month-long stay in the hospital as a "surprisingly pleasant experience." Ross filled his room with books and pictures from home and set up a stereo so he could enjoy his favorite jazz and blues tunes.

Meanwhile, the success rate for using transplants to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has grown, thanks in part to the courage of patients such as Ross.

"I now have a very strong feeling about the importance of medical research and the willingness of patients and doctors to take risks even when the outcome is not known," he said.