41 Years Later, Still Cancer Free

“It’s been 41 years since my transplant,” recalls 74-year-old John Frey, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was 31-years-old. John shared his medical journey during the Celebration of Life 50^th Anniversary. “I was stage 4B at the time, and we hoped chemotherapy would be enough to put me in remission, but I got worse. I have an identical twin, and at the time, UCLA Health was doing bone marrow transplants(Link opens in new window) on identical twins. So, in July of 1978, I was admitted for a bone marrow transplant. My understanding was that this was one of the first transplants on lymphoma. Theoretically, they said it should work, and it obviously did.” Nodding, Christine Frey, John’s wife, adds, “With 41 more years of life, he’s been able to get married, see our daughters get through college and see his grandkids, all because he chose to do an experimental procedure at UCLA Health when the program was in its infancy.”