Steve Oglesbee will admit that though he’s always listened to his wife’s advice, sometimes over the course of a decades-long marriage he would procrastinate a little on taking action.
In June 2016, Oglesbee was dealing with a recurring cold with a cough. Not being able to shake it after a couple of weeks was unusual and his wife, Ross, convinced him to have it checked to rule out bronchitis. Fortunately, this time he listened and acted promptly.
That doctor visit led to a CT scan that revealed a mass in Oglesbee’s chest. Soon after, he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma that had spread to his lungs and brain.
Nearly a decade later, after surgeries, radiation and immunotherapy treatments and with more than five years cancer-free under his belt, Oglesbee says the experience has changed him in positive ways.
“I have learned a lot from this,” says Oglesbee, 77, who lives in Carrboro. “If she makes a recommendation I am going to do it.”
Whole-Body Treatment for Metastatic Melanoma
The site of the primary melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, was never determined. This scenario, melanoma of unknown origin, occurs in less than 5 percent of metastatic melanoma cases, says UNC Health oncologist Carrie Lee, MD, MPH, who treated Oglesbee.
After a successful surgery in 2016 that removed all of the tumor in his brain, Oglesbee completed radiation therapy followed by immunotherapy infusions. Though the immunotherapy came with side effects that caused severe digestive problems, limiting the number of treatments that he could take, it was worth it.
“He had a beautiful response. In fact, a complete response,” Dr. Lee says.
Oglesbee seemed to be done with treatment, but in 2019 imaging tests indicated cancer had returned in some of the lymph nodes in his neck. The prospect of more surgery loomed large, and Oglesbee remembers feeling discouraged. It helped that Dr. Lee described cancer treatment as something done in stages, a combination of positive steps and “speed bumps.”
“You’ve got to take it one step at a time,” Oglesbee says.
With current treatments, Dr. Lee says, cancer often can be a chronic disease that may need ongoing treatment but can be lived with.
“In many instances, we have converted cancer to something along the lines of diabetes,” she says. “Something that’s going to be with you but is not insurmountable.”
After three surgeries to remove cancerous lymph nodes, Oglesbee began receiving CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results that were clear of cancer. They’ve continued to be clear since 2020. The current recommendation from Dr. Lee is that he no longer needs regular scans unless he notices new symptoms.
“I feel extremely fortunate getting through all of that, with the help of my physicians and my family,” Oglesbee says.
Cancer Center Employee Becomes a Patient
Undergoing treatment at UNC Hospitals was, in some ways, a familiar experience for Oglesbee. He earned his degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and had served for years as director of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Tissue Culture Facility, which grows and stores cell lines for cancer research. Before that, he worked at the UNC School of Medicine.
“There I was, 12 years at the School of Public Health and 30 years at the cancer center. Then I became a patient,” he says.
A native of Winston-Salem, Oglesbee grew up in Greensboro and graduated from high school in Charlotte. He came to Chapel Hill as an undergraduate before serving in the Vietnam War; he and Ross met on campus and married after their sophomore year. After he was discharged from the Army, Oglesbee returned to finish his degree. He’s been around ever since, spending his career supporting the cancer research efforts at Lineberger before retiring in 2017.
In retirement, Oglesbee has enjoyed traveling with Ross on trips around the United States and to the Caribbean. He enjoys working around the house, renovating rooms and restoring antique furniture. He says he’s as busy as ever and takes on each day with a positive attitude that Dr. Lee thinks helped him during cancer treatment.
Receiving cancer care at UNC Health as a patient, Oglesbee was impressed with the team approach to diagnosis and treatment and with all the providers who worked with him. He appreciated how Dr. Lee, in particular, was honest about the seriousness of his stage 4 diagnosis while also helping him move forward during difficult times.
“They’re not promising they are going to cure you, but they will give you hope,” he says.
Dr. Lee calls it a combination of realism and optimism. Stage 4 metastatic cancer is a serious diagnosis, but statistics reflecting the outcomes of such cases are just that, statistics. They don’t tell the story of an individual patient.
“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about cancer medicine over 20 years, it’s that if you’ve seen one case, you’ve seen one case,” Dr. Lee says.
People in cancer treatment at UNC Health benefit from working with a cancer nurse navigator, who helps guide the patient through treatment and works to make a stressful and complicated process easier. Oglesbee’s nurse navigator was Paula Landman, who says her goal is to be a patient’s “go-to person for anything,” including symptom management, psychosocial support, finding resources and scheduling appointments.
Nine years after first working with Oglesbee, she still wears a U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division pin from Oglesbee’s service days that he gave her as a gift of appreciation.
Oglesbee credits Dr. Lee and Landman with his successful treatment and says he knew he was in good hands from the start.
“I had this feeling of overwhelming comfort and trust,” Oglesbee said. “My wife and I feel like they’re family.”
If you have questions about symptoms, talk to your doctor or find one near you.