Before coming to MD Anderson for treatment of hairy cell leukemia in 2015, I was told by two different oncologists that I had only a matter of weeks left to live. The first one was in Alabama. The second one was near my home in Florida.

Fortunately, I also had a hematologist who was familiar with the work of Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, a leukemia specialist at MD Anderson. And after being treated there with a combination of chemotherapy...