New stem cell transplant procedure offers new hope for patients at Novant Health

CHARLOTTE — A patient undergoing cancer treatment at Novant Health in Charlotte has new hope after learning of a new stem cell transplant procedure which will allow him to recover at home.

Before his diagnosis, John Fox knew something was wrong.

“Every two or three days something was breaking and the wheels were falling off,” said John Fox, patient.

Fox says in a matter of days that just doing normal activities around the house and on vacation, like lifting a suitcase, caused him to break several ribs.

“They did the MRI cat scan whatever and determined I had a cracked pelvis, five cracked ribs, and a cracked femur neck bone,” said Fox.

Doctors at Novant Health dug a little deeper and learned his broken bones were caused by another issue: multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that weakens the bones and can be deadly.

“I had never been in the hospital my whole life and I was 63 and it just floored us. We didn’t know what to think.” said Fox.

“Back in the day when we didn’t have advance treatment options patients with multiple myeloma had limited options and survival was around 3 years,” said Novant Health hematologist Dr. Abhishek Chilkulwar.

Dr. Chilkulwar says because of advanced therapies like stem cell transplants, Fox’s life expectancy is much longer.

“Even though we still say it’s not a curable disease, there are patients that live well beyond 10-15 years,” said Dr. Chilkulwar.

Fox will be the first patient in Charlotte to undergo a stem cell transplant and be allowed to leave after the procedure.

Normally, patients would be in the hospital for 14 days so their immune system could build back up.

The difference now?

“The way our set up is, we have a good outpatient cell therapy unit with nurses and providers that we are able to give all the care we would give patients and outpatients go home at the end of the day and stay in their own bed and eat their own food,” said Dr. Chilkulwar.

“What I was dreading the most was having to be in the hospital for 12-16 days and when Doctor C asked me about doing this outpatient I was like I feel great,” said Fox.

Fox will still go to the hospital each day to have his vitals checked but this new outpatient procedure puts patients where they want to be -- at home with loved ones instead of in the hospital.

As for Fox, he says once he’s in remission he intends to do what he loves -- walking the sunny beaches in Florida with his wife of 42 years.

“We’ll go down there ... we love the beach. There’s something about sitting on the beach when the waves are coming in,” said Fox.

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