OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) -- Cancer, in one way or another, touches all of us. This year there will be an estimated 1.7 million new cancer cases and 600,000 deaths in the United States. But a new clinical trial at Nebraska Medicine is being hailed as a cancer breakthrough.

The last 15 months have been some of Amy Cheeses darkest days.

It started with a swollen left arm. But doctors told her, You dont have a blood clot. You have a mass in your chest.

The Fort Collins, Colorado, third grade teacher had cancer.

Its horrible to lose someone you love and go through it. We did it with my mom, Amy said.

The traditional treatments were failing; the mass inside her chest wasnt shrinking.

Probably the size of big grapefruit, Dr. Julie Vose explained.

I think Ive had 10 [scans] and not ever did I hear really positive response, Amy said.

With options exhausted, she packed up and came to Omaha for a clinical trial at Nebraska Medicine to see Dr. Julie Vose.

A lot of our patients have come from around the region, because were the only ones with this therapy regionally, Dr. Vose said.

The clinical trial called Car T-Cell Therapy and works this way: first, Amy Cheeses blood is collected and her t cells are isolated.

We all have T cells to fight infection but in a cancer patient those cells go haywire.

Her cells are then sent to a California lab to be re-engineered.

Two weeks later, the cells are returned to Omaha and given back to the Amy to fight the lymphoma. WOWT 6 News was there the day she learned if it worked.

Continuing improvement. Its now 2.7 and that means complete remission, Dr. Vose told Amy.

Oh really. Wow.

The grapefruit mass putting pressure on her heart is nowhere to be seen.

I didnt think it was ever going to happen, said Amy. Thats what everybody wants to hear. Complete remission.

This was the original PET scan before treatment. This was all lymphomathe bright spots. And then this shows its all gone. After having bad news for so many months its so good to give patients great news, Vose said.

Amy Cheese quickly texted the news to her family and friends.

She read some of the replies for WOWT 6 News:

Baaw. Oh my gosh. I love you so much. Im so excited and shaking while teaching math.

Words, words, words. I cant find them.

My oldest said, Mom Im beyond happy.

While this is early in the cancer study, its hard to avoid thinking of others who could benefit.

Were hoping the same technology can apply to different types of cancers as well, Dr Vose said.

Amy Cheese, grateful for the treatment, is already thinking shell be back in her Colorado third grade classroom this fall.

This treatment at Nebraska Medicine is for patients with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma as well as acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Its hoped this research will, one day, translate to other cancer treatments.

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Cancer breakthrough in Nebraska Medicine clinical trial - WOWT