Beating a Rare Blood Cancer

How Brent Burgesser defeated an unforeseen diagnosis of metastatic cancer.

“They told my parents I wouldn’t make it to Christmas,” Brent Burgesser explains. “Today, I’m cancer-free—living proof that miracles happen.”

Brent’s life changed overnight during a routine business trip to New Orleans. Without warning, he lost hearing in his right ear. Back home, an ENT confirmed total hearing loss and immediately ordered an MRI. The next day, Brent got a call no one wants to hear: three tumors had been found in his brain.
 
A neurologist delivered even more devastating news: “Brent, the tumors are inoperable, and I don’t believe they started here. You need to check into the hospital immediately.” Further scans revealed countless tumors in his lungs, leading to a diagnosis of stage 4 lymphomatoid granulomatosis, a rare and aggressive blood cancer.
 
Brent had always been the picture of health—225 pounds of solid muscle, a lifelong athlete, a CrossFit regular, and a nonsmoker who rarely drank. Yet, suddenly, his life was hanging by a thread.
 
Treatment began with eight rounds of chemotherapy, each cycle leaving him sicker and weaker. When the cancer didn’t respond, Brent endured a month of targeted brain radiation, followed by more chemo. By November 2020, doctors warned his parents that he likely wouldn’t live to see Christmas: “If the cancer doesn’t kill him, the chemo will.”
 
With no options left, his medical team tried a stem cell transplant. For two weeks, Brent spent five hours per day in the hospital donating his own blood for the procedure. In April 2021, his doctors, led by Dr. Estil Vance, performed the transplant. First, they brought him to the brink of death with an intense chemo regimen called the MATRix, then they reintroduced purified stem cells to rebuild his immune system.
 
The next day, Brent woke up and felt different—clearer, stronger, and more alive. One month later, repeated tests confirmed the miracle: he was cancer-free.
 
Today, Brent calls every day a gift. “I wasn’t supposed to survive,” he says. “But I did, thanks to my incredible doctors, my family, and the hope that never gave up on me. If my story gives even one person the strength to keep fighting, it’s worth every moment I endured.”

Whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver, or loved one touched by cancer, your story can have an enormous impact. You can provide hope and inspiration to someone recently diagnosed with cancer or a patient undergoing therapy.