Competitive Spirit Helps Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Patient Beat Cancer

In late 2021, Samuel went to the doctor for what he thought was a tennis injury. Instead, he learned of a 17-centimeter mass beside his clavicle, plus several smaller growths elsewhere in his body. That’s typical of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer carried throughout the lymphatic system. 

By the time of his diagnosis, Samuel’s lymphoma had advanced to stage 4A, meaning it had spread outside his lymphatic system. 

He wasted no time looking for treatment options. As a former media executive and CEO of his own consulting firm, Samuel has a far-reaching network of well-connected individuals. He tapped a few for recommendations on top doctors and treatment centers across the country. “I was open to going anywhere,” he stresses. “I just wanted to find the best.” 

He found the best only a 10-minute drive from his home. Several friends had steered the Solana Beach resident to Scripps, and the care of Alan Saven, MD, and James Mason, MD, both oncologists and hematologists at Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines and the Scripps Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. 

Scripps Bone Marrow Transplant Program, part of the Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation, is well-known for expertise and innovation, facilitating bone marrow and stem cell transplants for people across the country. 

Specialists work in collaboration with comprehensive teams across the Scripps system to ensure patients receive the highest quality health care possible. It’s also the primary collection source for the National Marrow Donor Program in Southern California and the Department of Defense, as well as the largest collection site in the world. 

“We’re actually one of the longest established programs in the country,” notes Dr. Mason, the bone marrow transplant center’s director. Launched in 1980, the program was the first in San Diego, and among the first in the nation, to conduct stem cell transplants. 

“We have a very well-developed program here,” Dr. Mason says, “and we do a lot of cutting-edge work.”

However, leading-edge treatment isn’t always the first stop on a lymphoma patient’s journey, and it wasn’t for Samuel. 

His initial treatment was more conventional and required 12 sessions of chemotherapy: two per month for six months. Samuel leaned on his supportive partner, Tami, as he approached the first session, unsure of what to expect. 

At one point Tami suggested, “Why don’t you plan to be comfortable? Wear sweats, bring your slippers, maybe a robe?” But then Samuel recalled advice Dr. Saven had given him: “If you don’t feel sick, don’t act sick.” 

Samuel didn’t feel sick. He felt like going to battle with the illness that threatened to upend his life. He invoked the competitive spirit of basketball great Michael Jordan and wore a pair of the athlete’s signature Nike Air Jordan Ones. 

Samuel brought work to do at the clinic, and even logged into a couple of Zoom meetings while receiving his chemotherapy. He felt so strong and optimistic after the first session, he decided to repeat the approach. 

He bought another pair of Jordan Ones for the second session, then another for the third, and so on: Twelve pairs of sneakers for 12 treatments in what he came to regard as a competition for his life. 

But even for a guy of Samuel’s size and energy, cancer can be tough to beat. 

Step one requires collecting bone marrow stem cells from the patient and freezing them. Next, the patient gets a potent dose of chemotherapy to completely eradicate the cancer. 

“The problem is that it also kills all of the bone marrow where you make your blood, where you have immune cells that fight infection, where you have red blood cells that carry oxygen and clotting cells," says Dr. Mason. 

The powerful meds literally take a patient’s white blood cell count to zero. This means the body cannot physically fight any threat on its own. 

“Right when you think your body is not going to able to fight anymore,” Samuel says, “that’s when they rescue you with your own stem cells.” 

It’s a harrowing process. But putting the stem cells back in the body only takes about an hour,” Samuel says, “It’s weirdly anti-climactic.” 

Administered through an IV, the stem cells find their way back into a patient’s bones where, within a couple of weeks, the production of blood cells resumes — minus the cancer. 

The concept of autologous stem cell transplantation has been around for decades and was fairly well established when Dr. Mason entered the field in 1991. However, the last 40 years have seen many refinements, beginning with how stem cells are collected. 

“Patients in those days had to have a true bone marrow transplant, where you literally had to go into the patient beforehand with very long needles and extract bone marrow in the operating room,” he says. Today, patients receive a course of medication that induces bone marrow stem cells to enter the bloodstream. The blood gets drawn from one arm, the stem cells are filtered out with a centrifuge, then the blood is immediately returned into the other arm. 

“At any given moment,” the doctor points out, “only a very small amount of blood is actually outside of the patient.” 

Other advances making the process less debilitating include more effective antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antinausea medications. That means patients have more energy with which to heal. But that doesn’t mean more bed rest. In fact, the doctors at Scripps encourage their patients to be up and active, to keep their bodies — and their outlooks — as strong as possible. 

“We want them up and about, even in the middle of the transplant,” Dr. Mason says. “We want them walking around and exercising.” 

And that’s where having a guy like Brad Samuel can make a difference for other patients and staff. “He’s a very dynamic individual, with a great deal of positivity and gumption,” notes Dr. Mason. 

Heading into his treatment, Samuel pieced together a daily exercise regimen with the help of his brother, Derek, a master physical therapist who helps elite athletes recover from injury, including champion golfers and All-Pro NFL players. 

Rather than a hospital gown he walked his hundred laps a day in gym clothes, greeting and connecting with everyone on the wing: doctors, nurses and custodial staff, in addition to fellow patients. Several even took to joining his workouts. “We got a crew of people,” Samuel says. “What an incredible vibe it gave people on the floor.” 

On the day Samuel finally rang the bell mounted by the nurses station, a crowd gathered to cheer him along. He praised his Scripps doctors and nurses, whom he calls “experts, not just in the practice of medicine, but in the practice of humanity.” 

And, of course, he credits the lifesaving advanced medicine practiced by the Scripps Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. But Samuel has no doubt that, at that moment the medicine had done everything in its power, a winning attitude pushed him over the top. 

“Nobody can tell me that, if it’s a tiebreaker, your mind can’t push it over the edge one way or the other,” he says. “Don't give up hope. Ever. Double-down on it.”