Dr. David Fajgenbaum

And so got back to Philly, and then I just worked basically day and night running experiments.

I thawed those blood samples, started measuring proteins in the blood, measuring what those immune cells were doing.

And I eventually identified that a communication line in the immune system, you've got all these immune cells all over your body, and they've got to communicate with one another.

And I discovered that one of those communication lines was turned into overdrive.

Sort of like, to me, I thought of it as like, it seems like maybe the fire alarm is going off in my immune system, even when it shouldn't.

It's like a false alarm.

And so therefore, it's attacking everything.

And what was really important about that discovery, Sean, is that there's a drug that's been around for decades that can turn that communication line off.

And it was made for organ transplantation.

So if you were to get a kidney, your immune system would attack that new kidney, that transplanted kidney, unless you took this medicine, which would prevent your immune system from attacking that transplanted kidney.

And that drug turns this one communication line off.

So I went to my doctor in DC, and I was like, hey, would you consider prescribing this?

And he's like, well, it's never been done before for Castleman's.

It could cause problems.

It could turn things in the wrong direction with your immune system.

Maybe this could kill you.

And I said, well, but I've almost died five times, and I'm out of options.

And so he prescribed it.

And so I started taking it, and it's, Sean, it's now been over 11 and a half years.

I've been doing great on this drug.