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After 17 Years Of Recurring Tumors, Retired Teacher Has Proton Therapy To Treat Cancer In The Spine – And Preempt Future Tumors

Robert Redman is a retired special education teacher who has been treated for recurring cancer for 17 years. He was first diagnosed with a solitary fibrous tumor when he was 41 and living in New York state. His symptoms included neck pain and migraines, but it wasn't until an episode of excruciating pain after a chiropractic visit that his physician ordered an MRI. They saw a dense solitary fibrous tumor on his spinal cord.

The tumor was benign, but it was so dense that it took surgeons 16 hours to remove part of it, and Redman's recovery lasted months. A year later, surgeons removed the rest of the tumor.

"The tumor was on my C1 and C2 vertebrae, on the border between spine and brain," said Redman. "Then, five years later, they found another tiny tumor outside the surgical area. This time it was cancerous, but they treated it successfully with Gamma Knife [stereotactic radiosurgery]."

"Then there was another one. And another one. It's been a roller coaster."

Unlike conventional radiation, Gamma Knife delivers a highly focused, concentrated dose of radiation to a very precise area using 192 tiny beams and can be a good option for tumor locations such as Redman's.

Redman has had multiple recurrences over the years, always outside the latest previously treated area. He's had several rounds of Gamma Knife radiation, and another surgery in 2020 for a tumor that developed at the base of his skull. This was followed by conventional radiation delivered over time in fractions, as is typical with radiation treatment.

In 2022, Redman's daughter decided to attend college on the West Coast, and he and his husband, Randy, decided to relocate "just for something different." Six months after moving to Seattle, Redman's cancer reappeared. Shortly afterward, it spread to the spine in five different locations. Redman received care at Fred Hutch Cancer Center and tried oral chemotherapy, but when that didn't produce sufficient results, his Fred Hutch radiation oncologist and central nervous system expert, Lia Halasz, MD, recommended proton therapy.

"The ability of proton therapy to stop in the body where we want it to without an exit dose allows us to treat larger areas of the body, with tolerable side effects," explained Halasz.

This time, Redman's care team radiated the entire lining of the spinal cord with protons to treat the known tumors and to preempt future tumors. With proton therapy, they were able to avoid radiation to the spinal cord itself, meaning less nausea, weight loss and low blood counts. All of the treated tumors shrank or disappeared, with no subsequent recurrence in the treatment area to date.

"I tolerated protons much better than conventional radiation," said Redman. "It's a little intimidating at first because of the big machine. They put a tiny tattoo on my chest for proper targeting, and that minor pain was the worst of it. It's really incredible that they strap you down, you lie still for a few minutes a day, you don't feel anything, but they are killing the cancer!"

During proton therapy, Redman developed fatigue over time, but he still went to the gym. Now he's feeling good and doing everything he did before. In fact, he just finished building a beautiful mid-century modern chair for his patio.

He is also back to traveling, something he couldn't do during treatment.

Redman and his husband traveled to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics and got to see some events, including weightlifting. They also visited their son in Luxembourg. This past Christmas, the family got together for a visit at their house in New York. They hope to do more hiking and exploring in the Pacific Northwest this coming year.

"The recovery was much easier than surgery, which was awful. With protons, I had no nerve damage and did not require hours of physical therapy," said Redman. "And Dr. Halasz is great. She is so compassionate and explained everything very well."

His advice for other patients?

"Take it one day at a time," said Redman. "You change your mindset when you have cancer to living in the here and now. You have to live like it's going to be okay."

Teacher Relearns How To Walk After Surgery To Remove Tumor In His Spinal Cord

St. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) - A Missouri teacher, husband and father is on the road to recovery after a life-changing diagnosis and risky surgery.

For about five weeks starting in September, Steve Loutzenhiser, a teacher at Fort Zumwalt East High School, was in pain trying to sleep, and it wasn't getting better.

"I felt like I was getting stabbed in the back between my shoulder blades," he told KMOV.

Since the pain was impacting his daily life, Steve Loutzenhiser went for an MRI and found out, at only 41 years old, he had a tumor in his spinal cord that could not be easily removed.

His wife, Jackie Loutzenhiser, says the diagnosis was devastating and something the family of five never expected.

"When one of the doctors said we didn't know what we could do for him, it was like, 'I can't do this without him,'" Jackie Loutzenhiser said. "Our family doesn't work without him. It was a lot of what is our family going to look like 10 years down the road, if he's paralyzed or not here."

Multiple doctors told Steve Loutzenhiser they would not operate on him before Dr. Camilo Molina, a neurosurgeon at St. Louis' Washington University, agreed to perform the extremely complicated surgery to remove his tumor.

"Literally growing within his spinal cord. It's about 3 centimeters in length and about 2 centimeters in depth, so that's essentially the entire diameter of his spinal cord," Molina said.

The tumor could eventually cause paralysis, weakness, loss of balance and other symptoms, according to Molina.

"These tumors are extremely risky because they actually grow within the spinal cord," Molina said. "The spinal cord, unlike the brain, is what we call completely eloquent, meaning every piece of tissue that is in there has a critical function. There is no redundancy. It's an area we enter with extreme caution because anything resected that is not the tumor will result in a permanent deficit, small or big."

By early January, Steve Loutzenhiser had the surgery to remove the tumor. Afterward, he spent more than a week in the hospital and nearly two weeks in rehab relearning how to walk.

"At first, I couldn't get out of bed, and then, I could walk 10 feet. Then, I could walk 50 feet. I remember when I earned my blue band at the rehab facility, which meant I could walk around the room with my walker without needing to call the nurses, that was a victory," Steve Loutzenhiser said.

There have been a lot of small victories for the father of three in the month since his surgery. He says his children have provided motivation for him to keep getting better.

"Four months turnaround of you have a tumor, we don't know what we can do about it, second opinion, we're gonna take it out, we took it out, you can't walk, you walked in here," Steve Loutzenhiser said.

While at rehab, Steve Loutzenhiser learned he was being named his high school's Teacher of the Year.

"I saw a missed call from my boss... And I just thought they were checking in, so I called during a break. She said, 'Do you want Steve or Steven on your Teacher of the Year award?' It was emotional. It still is. It's been a journey," Steve Loutzenhiser said.

The teacher, who is also his school's baseball coach, was able to walk across the auditorium in front of his students to get his award, a major goal achieved.

He says another goal is being able to be in the dugout with the baseball team this season.