THE BIG C MEETS CAR T
Most cancer narratives begin with diagnosis and end with cure. Laurie Adami's book is about everything in between.
THE BIG C MEETS CAR T is Laurie's account of what it actually takes to survive a serious illness inside the American healthcare system - twelve years of decisions made under uncertainty, clinical trials that didn't work, and the understanding that comes from living inside a complex system for a very long time. It is a book for patients trying to understand their options, for families supporting someone in treatment, and for anyone working inside medicine who wants to understand what that experience looks like from the other side.
Over twelve years, Laurie enrolled in multiple clinical trials, changed oncologists, changed cancer centers, and taught herself the science of a disease that kept coming back. In 2018 she entered a Phase 2 clinical trial at UCLA for CAR-T cell therapy - a treatment that engineered her own immune cells to seek and destroy the cancer. It worked. Her scans came back clear on Day 30.
The book traces that arc in full: the diagnosis, the relapses, the emotional and logistical cost of staying in the fight, and the moment she threw her scan results across the room because she simply couldn't believe them. It also examines the landscape of cell and gene therapy as it was emerging - a science so new that most of the people administering it had never seen results like hers before.
At its heart, THE BIG C MEETS CAR T is about how patients can become informed partners in their own care.
Laurie also shares reflections from her ongoing journey through blog posts, essays, and other writings.
She has written about her experience for a range of publications - bringing the same directness to a broader audience of patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.
Below are some selected writings.