Triumph after a trial and tribulations

“我告诉我的医生，'你最好不要骗我。””

That was in 1969, when her physician informed her she had uterine cancer, her first bout with the disease. She fully recovered after a complete hysterectomy.

She faced the news again in 2011 when Guillermo Garcia-Manero, M.D., professor in白血病, told her she had acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

“I told Dr. Garcia-Manero the same thing,” says the 81-year-old Cates, referring to her demand for directness. “They don’t sugarcoat anything. That’s the way I want it to be.”

Garcia-Manero was honest. He informed Cates that the survival rate for someone her age was very, very low.

“I told him, ‘I’m not going to die.'"

盖茨，谁住在匡威，路易斯安那州，一个小镇什里夫波特以南55英里的路易斯安那州/得克萨斯州接壤，从来没有感觉到任何的有关反洗钱的症状。她没有疲劳或贫血。“我从来不觉得不好，”她说。

But in 2010, tests showed her white blood count was low. She visited an oncologist in Lake Charles, La., who diagnosed her with “pre-leukemia,” now known as myelodysplastic syndrome. A year of chemotherapy later, her condition was “not any better, not any worse.”

At that point, Cates, who describes herself as a woman who can’t sit down and do nothing, decided to come toMD Andersonfor a second opinion.

在这里，加西亚Manero发现她有这是造成她的身体产生原始细胞的FLT3基因突变 - 未成熟的细胞不发育成成熟的白血细胞。他把她在临床试验中索拉非尼，一种抑制剂“轮流FLT3关”，从而使健康细胞产生。

“They gave me powerful cancer pills,” Cates recalls. “They nearly killed me… but they saved my life.”

盖茨正在采取一天四粒。她的体重逐渐减少，从116斤到78只是随着时间的推移她的剂量减少，现在她只需要一个药丸隔日，和丸不再让她恶心。她还每个月开始化疗七天是保持不变的方案。

It hasn’t been easy, but Cates credits being alive to her optimism, her doctor and her faith.

“I thank God for giving him the ability to know what was wrong,” she says.

“The pills, the prayer and Dr. Garcia-Manero are what have brought me through.”