CLEMSON, SC (FOX Carolina) -
Chris Draft, a former NFL linebacker, first met LaKeasha Rutledge back in 2006 in Charlotte, NC.

“It’s crazy how things work together,” Draft said. “My cousin met a friend of hers up in New York City.”

Back in 2006, Draft was making moves on the football field with the Carolina Panthers. Before they met, Keasha Rutledge danced with the NBA Charlotte Hornets’ Honeybees and worked as an engineer.

While they dated, Draft played for several teams and in 2010 he retired. During that time, Rutledge decided to train for the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston.

“She really wanted to run it, so she was training,” Draft said. “She was in shape. She was strong, and because of that she just felt this little shortness of breath.”

That shortness of breath led to chest X-rays and a CT scan.

“She got the chest X-ray and the results came back and there was a mass,” Draft said. “That was right before Christmas in 2010. She got a biopsy a couple days after Christmas and it was confirmed it was lung cancer.”

At 37 years old, Rutledge, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

“In football we’re taught and told this could be the last game that you play,” Draft said. “And this situation was one of those that takes that so much more to that extreme.”

During those months, they made a commitment to fight. And on Nov. 27, 2011, in front of family and friends, Draft and Rutledge made another commitment to one another and got married.

“That’s my wife!” Draft said. “That’s my wife! You know? We’re going to hold on and we’re going to fight. We’re going to continue to fight.”

He said Keasha Rutledge Draft danced, smiled and lived each day and encouraged others to do the same.

A month to the day after they were married, Keasha Rutledge Draft died.

“And what helped her live was great family, great friends that remembered her of the importance of standing up and being a woman,” Draft said.

So now, instead of pads and a helmet, Draft suits up for Team Draft.

He doesn’t travel with a team of linebackers, receivers or running backs, but he still goes from city to city but with a new playbook. The new game plan is to raise money for lung cancer research in Keasha Rutledge Draft’s honor.

“Our hope is that when people think of lung cancer, they’re not going to think of a cigarette anymore,” Draft said. “But they’ll see Keasha, they’ll see her face and they’ll realize it’s people, it’s not just a disease, it’s people who need our help. I don’t want to see Keasha just as someone that passed away from lung cancer, but really someone that lived.”

Those who love her want to continue to honor her strength. Tiko Thurman, Keasha Rutledge Draft’s cousin, said she was more like a sister.

“We (were) just extremely close,” Thurman said.

Keasha Rutledge Draft grew up in Williamston and as an only child, family members said faith and family came first. She graduated from high school an academic scholar and chose to attend Clemson University. She graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.

“She was just that person when she walked into a room, things would change, people would brighten up,” Thurman said.

So, when doctors diagnosed her with stage four lung cancer, it was hard to understand.

“When Keasha got it, it really just opened my eyes to this is a deadly disease that can attack anyone, the healthiest person,” Thurman said.

Dr. Billy Bolton, a thoracic surgeon with the Greenville Hospital System didn’t treat Keasha Rutledge Draft but said her story is unfortunately a familiar one. Keasha Rutledge Draft had a form of lung cancer known as non-small cell lung cancer.

“Non-small cell lung cancer makes up the majority of lung cancer in the United States; about 75 to 85 percent of all patients,” Bolton said.” So what happens is there’s a mutation in that cell of the lung and then it continues to grow more rapidly than the other cells in that lung.”

Bolton said often times the diagnosis can be linked to two factors.

“Those two factors – secondhand smoke and radon gas, probably account for the majority of them,” Bolton said.

But he said progress is being made with research and new medicines.

“I think it would mean a whole lot to be able to see your mom and dad for four or five more years or however long it might be,” Bolton said.

One of Keasha Rutledge Draft’s closest friends, Jessie Hood, said her friend had a way of making others feel special.

“She would never ask, I never heard her say why me? She just accepted that this is what God had for her and she was going to fight,” Hood said.

They met at Clemson University and became sorority sisters.

“Her life was very special. She was a special person, she was a beautiful person, she had such capacity to love. Her heart was so big. She was an academic scholar, but she was the life of the party. She was a dancer, but she was an engineer too and she just lived each day,” Hood said.

She said her friend would light up the floor when she danced as a rally cat at Clemson, or when she shared intimate moments with friends and family.

“Her relationship with her mother was very special. Not only did they have a mother-daughter relationship, but they were really best friends too,” Hood said.

So in her honor, the Keasha Rutledge Draft Memorial Scholarship is set up for Clemson students.

“Not only are we helping future Clemson undergraduate students, we’re also helping the university,” Hood said.

And Thurman said he always knew his cousin would do big things, and though it’s tough without her, he said he’s learned a lot about life by witnessing the way she lived.

“Make sure that we make everyday a positive day. Make sure we find great things in everyday and just live life like God intended us to do. He said he wants us to live life and live it more abundantly,” Thurman said.

If you would like to be a part of Team Draft, you can donate to the Keasha Rutledge Draft Memorial Scholarship fund. All donations are tax deductible and benefit the Clemson fund.

Family and friends honor Keasha Rutledge Draft, who died after battling stage four lung cancer.

To highlight some of the critical work being done at the Goodman Cancer Research Centre, we gathered some of our top scientists, students, lab techs and dedicated volunteers, who turned on the music – and danced!

His goal is changing the face of lung cancer. Former NFL linebacker Chris Draft is logging thousands of miles to reach that goal. Draft is traveling to cancer centers across the country to learn everything he can about the disease that took the love of his life. Despite his loss, Draft’s message is about people living and fighting lung cancer. People like his wife.
Keasha Draft was diagnosed with advance stage non-small cell lung cancer in December 2011. A year later, in December 2012, she passed away. Since her death, Chris Draft shares her story to keep her memory alive and to dispel the myths about lung cancer. Keasha Draft was 38-years-old and, like approximately 20 percent of those diagnosed with lung cancer, never smoked a cigarette.
When he arrived on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in July, Draft was well versed on the challenges involved in early detection, the molecular testing of lung tumors, targeted therapies and the leading edge research conducted by University of Colorado Cancer Center investigators.
What he found at CU Cancer Center is lung cancer survivors and hope. He met Ellen Smith, who got another chance at life by participating in a clinical trial for people with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive non-small cell lung cancer. Smith told Draft about her life since her diagnosis. She has traveled, gained precious time with her family, become a grandmother again and even gotten married. Draft encourages lung cancer survivors like Smith to tell their stories.
“Lung cancer doesn’t have a face and if it does, it’s a cigarette,” said Draft. “But things are changing. People need to see people with lung cancer living.”
Draft wants to change the face of lung cancer. He wants people to know it is the number one cancer killer in the United States. He wants to spread the word that lung cancer kills more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and skin cancer combined.
Draft’s stop at CU Cancer Center was the 40th in his tour of cancer centers across the country. He wants to share Keasha’s story of living for each day to inspire others so “they can be energized regardless how long they have. They are living.”

JULY 19, 2012 BY ERIKA MATICH

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – He tackled pro football players for 12 years, but former NFL linebacker Chris Draft is now battling a disease that took his love, and changed his life.

Draft is on the road again with “Team Draft,” determined to spread the word that lung cancer is one of the biggest killers out there and that it can affect anyone. Draft wanted to know all about the University of Colorado Cancer Center and CBS4′s Kathy Walsh went along.

Draft understands what it’s like to tackle cancer after the love of his life was taken by the disease. That was Keasha Rutledge. Draft met her in 2006 while he was a linebacker with the Carolina Panthers. She was an engineer and a dancer.

“Intelligent, intelligent woman; she actually graduated high school in three years,” Draft said.

In 2010, Draft retired and they were finally together.

“Two days before Christmas, her Christmas present was to find out she had a mass in her lung and then two days after they confirmed that it was cancer,” Draft said.

Keasha never smoked, yet she had Stage 4 lung cancer and was given only eight months to live — the fight was on.

“Radiation and chemo — and she was always smiling,” Draft said.

On Nov. 27, 2011, the pair got married. One month to the day later Keasha died.

The former pro is now teaming up with cancer centers across the country. He’s on a mission to change the face of lung cancer.

“The first thing they think is smoking, but the numbers are clear — between 15 and 20 percent are never smokers,” Draft said.

Draft points out lung cancer is the number one cancer killer. He shares Keasha’s story with patients whenever he can.

“That they can be energized regardless of how long they have, they are living.”

The University of Colorado Cancer Center was Draft’s 40th stop in his tour of top cancer centers in America. It’s also where doctors are finding success with medications made to match the genes of a particular lung cancer.

Medical Schools
MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Southwestern Medical School (2004)
Graduate Schools
PhD, University of Texas At Dallas (2004)
Undergraduate Schools
BS, Vanderbilt University (TN) (1996)
Residency Program
National Cancer Institute Anatomic Pathology Program (2004-2008)

Physicians at the University of Colorado Hospital are finding startling success with medications that are made to match the genes of a particular lung cancer. The new strategy means the drugs work only on certain patients – but they can work really well.
Researchers think the cancer-fighting drugs may tamp the disease for a few years, and then the cancers may mutate and find a way around the medication. But years of healthy living is fantastic for people who’ve been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of less than 3 percent.
Dr. Ross Camidge of UCH says patient Andy Bonnett is a prime example of what one of this new strategy of “personalized medicine” can do.
Two years ago Bonnett was one of those Stage 4 lung cancer patients. He was, said Camidge, “a young man who had never smoked, led a very healthy life, developed increasing shortness of breath and pain, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in his mid-30s.”

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My name is Matt Hiznay, and I am 25 years old. I am a lung cancer survivor. I am the first child of Jim and Mandie Hiznay. I have a younger sister, Katie, and a younger brother, Patrick. I grew up in Poland, Ohio, and graduated from John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. It was there I met my girlfriend, Ally Stojkoska. We met in freshmen biology class and began dating going into our junior years. After college, I enrolled in medical school at the University of Toledo, while Ally was off to pharmacy school at Ohio State University. These people have been with me on my entire journey with lung cancer. I would not be here today without them.
I was employed in a lab in the summer of 2011. Towards the end of July 2011, I developed a persistent, dry cough. Because I was going home about 10 days later, and I knowing that I had a past history with summertime allergies, I simply swallowed some cough drops and planned to bring it up at my yearly physical at the beginning of August. My cough worsened in August, and eventually a lymph node swelled up on the left side of my neck. It was removed and biopsied. My life forever changed on Wednesday, August 17, 2011. I was told on that day that I had cancer.
I travelled to the Cleveland Clinic on August 26 to see Dr. Nathan Pennell, a thoracic oncologist. I learned my grave diagnosis: stage IV adenocarcinoma of the lung. It was decided that I would begin intravenous chemotherapy six days later. My cancer was ravaging my body. It had spread into both lungs, into all the lymph nodes in my chest, and into my breastbone. Because of my cancer’s advanced state, it caused quite a list of complications in my body. Dr. Pennell decided that I was too weak to begin chemotherapy on September 1 and admitted me to the hospital. I remained in the Cleveland Clinic for three weeks, battling for my life.
The cancer created a massive fluid buildup around my lungs and my heart. In the early morning of September 2, I fell into respiratory failure, or “coded.” Simply put, my body was losing to the cancer, and fast; I was dying. I was transferred to the intensive care unit, where quick action by the doctors there drained the fluid from around my heart and I stabilized. I was placed on a ventilator because I could not breathe on my own. Tubes were placed in my chest and around my heart to drain the built up fluid. I developed blood clots in both of my lungs. I lost 30 pounds in three weeks. Dr. Pennell later told me that I experienced all the complications a lung cancer patient experiences – but whereas they usually occur over several years, mine all occurred in a matter of five days.
My luck forever changed on September 9. Back on August 26, the day I was diagnosed with lung cancer, Dr. Pennell recommended running a test for a specific genetic mutation that was currently under extensive study. This mutation caused a gene called anaplastic lymphoma kinase, or ALK for short, to become “turned on with no off switch.” This continual state of activity causes tumors to form, survive, and spread in lung cancer patients. Dr. Pennell sent a frozen section of my previously removed lymph node to see if I had this specific genetic mutation. This test is done out west and takes 14 days for a result. After two long weeks, and my near-death, the results showed I was a match for the mutation.
The ALK mutation is so significant because on the day I was diagnosed with lung cancer, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new form of chemotherapy for ALK-positive lung cancer patients. As a matter of fact, the drug I am on won early approval by the FDA and was released six weeks earlier than the scheduled date. I thank God every day for that, because I doubt I would have survived another six weeks without it. This miracle drug, called crizotinib, blocks the mutated ALK gene in my cancer cells. Crizotinib is not your typical chemotherapy. Whereas traditional, intravenous chemotherapy attacks all fast-dividing cells, whether the cells are cancerous or not, crizotinib attacks only the cancerous cells in my body. Crizotinib saved my life.
I began crizotinib on September 10, after the drug was overnighted to Cleveland thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Taussig Cancer Institute and my mother. After I began crizotinib, the fluid around my lungs and heart began to disappear. I slowly regained my strength. My draining tubes were removed and I eventually began to walk again. Finally, I was discharged from the Cleveland Clinic on September 21 and returned home for the first time in three weeks. Dr. Rendell Ashton, the intensivist who directed my care in the ICU, later told me that I was the sickest patient he had ever seen make it out of the ICU alive. On Thursday, November 10, 2011, two months to the day since I began crizotinib, Dr. Pennell informed me that my lung cancer had had a complete response to my treatment. A complete response means that no tumors can be seen on a CT scan and that my cancer was in remission. I went from stage IV lung cancer to cancer-free in two months.
I noticed a swelling on the left side of my neck near the middle of May 2012. A needlepoint biopsy on May 11, 2012 revealed my cancer had had a recurrence. I was referred to Dr. Ross Camidge at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Camidge is widely regarded as one of the top experts on ALK-positive non-small lung cancer in the United States. He enrolled me in a clinical trial of a drug that acts as the “second generation” of crizotinib. It is believed that some of my cancer cells have become resistant to crizotinib. It is hoped that this new drug will block the resistant cells’ ALK gene in the same previous manner. I will know for certain sometime after my PET scan on July 5, 2012. Until then, I thank everyone for their constant prayers and support.

 Inside GUMC – Georgetown University Medical Center GUMC.

Team Draft Tours Lombardi

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A radiant, smiling picture of former NFL linebacker Chris Draft’s wife Keasha was never far from sight as he toured Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center on June 21.

As Draft walked through the clinic and the new state-of-the-art infusion center, full of questions about the facility and kind words for the patients he encountered, he would frequently pull up Keasha’s photos on his iPad to show those around him.

Looking at her youthful, healthy images, it is difficult to believe Keasha passed away from lung cancer at age 38 on December 27, 2011 – one month to the day after she and Draft were married. A former dancer, Keasha had never smoked and had always been physically active and fit before she was diagnosed with stage IV small cell lung cancer.

Draft, who retired from the NFL in 2010 after playing for numerous teams including the Washington Redskins, hopes people will stop in disbelief when they hear his and Keasha’s story and see her pictures. That’s part of his goal.

“I am determined to show a new face of lung cancer. I’m not trying to make it anything other than what it is, but want to make sure we tell the complete story,” Draft said during his visit.

Telling the Complete Story

The “complete story” is that lung cancer can affect anyone – including nonsmokers like Keasha. In fact, it is among the biggest killers out there – accounting for more deaths than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and skin cancers combined. Draft wants to shatter the misconception that people who get lung cancer somehow have brought it on themselves through smoking or other adverse behaviors.

Now devoting much of his time to building awareness of the disease and raising funds for research through his Chris Draft Family Foundation, Draft is on the road a lot these days, visiting cancer centers nationwide in an effort to spread a message of hope about the progress of lung cancer research.

While at Georgetown Lombardi, he met with members of the senior leadership team and interested researchers. Unassuming and approachable, Draft came alone, armed with just his iPad, a camera and a hand-held video camera.

He filmed a short video of Deepa Subramaniam, M.D., assistant professor in the division of hematology/oncology, discussing the vast heterogeneity of lung cancer types and the promise of personalized medicine.

According to Subramaniam, lung cancer in people who have never smoked accounts for approximately 15 percent of all lung cancer cases now. The incidence among nonsmokers and women is on the rise, and researchers are learning just how distinct the disease can be from patient to patient, and from tumor to tumor.

Individualized therapies that target unique tumor characteristics will be the answer to responding to this scourge, Subramaniam said, and to forging a “new paradigm in the classification of lung cancer.”

“We will gradually chip away at each slice of the lung cancer pie. We are going to cure those who can be cured, and convert the disease in those who cannot be cured into a chronic disease,” she said.

To view Draft’s video of Subramaniam, visit http://www.thedraftreport.net/?p=1259.

For more information on Draft’s foundation and the national campaign to change the face of lung cancer, visitwww.teamdraft.org.

By Lauren Wolkoff, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Where There’s No Smoke
By Bob Hecker

A greater proportion of lung cancer patients are never-smokers. It’s a different disease and may require different therapy.

If 85 to 90 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States are linked to smoking tobacco, what’s behind the 10 to 15 percent of cases involving people who never smoked?

Medical scientists aren’t sure, but what they do know is that lung cancer in never-smokers is a biologically distinct disease from lung cancer in smokers, and one that sometimes can be treated differently with therapy targeting specific gene mutations.
“In the past decade, researchers have begun studying subtle biological differences in the lung tumors of smokers and of those who have never smoked,” says Gregory Otterson, MD, a medical oncologist and lung cancer specialist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James). Otterson says carcinogens in cigarette smoke cause gene mutations that are often different from those found in lung tumors of people who have never smoked.
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Dr. Villalona-Calero is a medical oncologist, lung cancer specialist, and an expert in drug development at the Ohio State University (OSU) Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Villalona-Calero’s current academic appointments are professor of the Departments of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology of The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health. He is also the director of the Solid Tumor Experimental Therapeutics program for OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-medical director of the Clinical Research Unit at the Arthur James Cancer Hospital.
Dr. Villalona-Calero received his medical degree (magna cum laude) from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Urena (U.N.P.H.U.), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He completed his internship and residency at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center, and Medical Oncology fellowships at the University of Minnesota Hospital & Clinics and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He was further trained in the drug development field in the Institute for Drug Development, University of Texas Health Sciences Center and in Health Policy Leadership from New York University.
Dr. Villalona’s most significant contribution is translating his and others laboratory observations into cancer therapy. His unique education background combining medicine, oncology, drug development, pharmacology and health policy leadership, as well as his devotion and compassion to advocate cancer and take care of cancer patients, make Dr. Villalona-Calero a true bench to bedside translational researcher.
Recognition of his work by his peers has led to more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in journals with moderate to high impact factor, 150 abstracts, membership in three journal editorial boards, three NCI-supported R21 grants, a V Foundation/AACR Translational Cancer Research Award, an N01 clinical trials contract with the NCI (all as principal investigator), two ARRA supplements from the NCI, and numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials with pharmaceutical companies support. His abilities as reviewer and mentor has led to membership or faculty status in study sections (NCI/C-ONC, ASCO/AACR Vail Workshop in Clinical Research, NCI Investigational Drug Steering Committee, AACR 2009 annual meeting co-chair), as well as, primary mentor in two K awards and faculty in two T-32s and a K-12 grant. Respond and Donate