Glenn Sabin

N of 1 Glenn Sabin

Twenty-five years ago my doctors had no cure for my cancer. So I went on a quest to find my own treatment. This is my story . . . In 1991, Glenn Sabin was a twenty-eight-year-old newlywed diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-a disease doctors called uniformly fatal. Treatments could buy him some time and eventually ease his discomfort, but there was no conventional cure. Glenn's prognosis was clear: he was going to die. Although Glenn and his wife, Linda, continued to consult with doctors, cancer specialists and top oncologists, Glenn made a monumental decision: he would become his own health advocate. While he continued to watch and wait, Glenn would figure out how to stay alive. No one could predict when a large-scale clinical trial would discover a cure for CLL, so Glenn began his own, medically monitored and carefully researched lifestyle changes. He would conduct his own, single patient clinical trial. He would become an n of 1. Today, Glenn is not only alive, but a 2012 biopsy at Harvard confirmed that his bone marrow contains no leukemic cells. His case is now part of the medical literature.