The Right Chemistry

摘要

Susan Waite, 48, still remembers hearing her disease's name, myelofibrosis, for the first time five years ago. "You Google," she says. "I know you're not supposed to, but everybody does. And at the time the average life expectancy was two and a half years." This rare cancer was turning her bone marrow, which produces blood cells, into scar tissue, leaving her anemic. She had one child in high school and two more in college, and was so tired she'd gone from being a social butterfly to a person who goes to bed right after dinner. Her spleen was so enlarged with blood cells that it hurt and prevented her from eating. Then her doctor offered her a pill called Jakafi, manufactured by a Wilmington, Delaware, company called In-cyte. She felt better in days. After dinner at a restaurant, she insisted her husband stay out with her to hear a band play. Her spleen shrank. "I was able to eat full meals again," she says. "It was very exciting." Now? She's still a bit anemic, but she's doing well. "I feel almost normal," she says.