For These 2 Team Members, the Hope Behind Cell Therapies Is Personal

In Moffitt Cancer Center’s Cell Therapies Core, patients are identified by numbers, not names. Lab technologists help select, grow and divide the immune cells that will be infused back into the patients to attack their cancer. Many who work there never get to see what happens to the patients after they deliver the lifesaving immunotherapy treatment.

But Cell Therapies Supervisor Alexander Dojcinovski and Cell Therapies Technologist II Jasmine Cherry know exactly what happens on the other side. Both work on the tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) manufacturing team, and both are blood cancer survivors. Their personal experiences make their jobs even more impactful, and they know firsthand what is at stake when a patient undergoes cellular therapy. 

Living Moffitt’s Mission

Dojcinovski was 24 years old when he was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma in 2014. He began a three-year arduous battle, starting with six rounds of chemotherapy. When he relapsed, he had three more rounds of chemotherapy before undergoing an autologous transplant, which uses a patient’s own healthy stem cells, followed by radiation.

Alexander Dojcinovski spent three years in treatment for stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. After, he wanted to give back to Moffitt and took a job working in the Cell Therapies Core. 

Unfortunately, the transplant was unsuccessful. Dojcinovski tried monoclonal antibody and immunotherapy treatments while he prepared for an allogenic transplant, which uses donor stem cells. His brother was a perfect match, and Dojcinovski underwent his second transplant in 2017. This would be his final treatment, and today he has been cancer free for more than six years.

Before his diagnosis, Dojcinovski had graduated with a degree in biomedical sciences and was working as a pharmacy technician. During his treatment, he always had his next steps in mind.

“I felt like I was at Moffitt every other week. I was eating and breathing Moffitt,” he said. “The level of compassion and care gave me the positive mindset that I was going to get through. Moffitt’s mission really stuck with me, and I wanted to get involved and find a way to give back.”

Dojcinovski was very involved in his treatment and constantly read literature on his disease and treatments. He would use the hours he spent in an infusion chair searching Moffitt’s job boards.

One year after his transplant, he was hired in Moffitt’s Cell Therapies Core.

“I have been very grateful for the opportunity, and I enjoy what I do. We have a great team, and it’s a good feeling to know you are contributing to something bigger,” he said.

Finding Support

Cherry was 25 years old and already working in the Cell Therapies Core when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2022. A trip to the emergency room for chest pain turned into a whirlwind cancer diagnosis and an immediate start to six weeks of inpatient chemotherapy.

Jasmine Cherry was working in the Cell Therapies Core when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She relied heavily on Dojcinovski for support when she underwent a stem cell transplant. 

She still had some residual disease after the first round of chemotherapy, so she tried an immunotherapy treatment that was administered through a medication pump attached to a backpack she wore all day. Every two days, she would take the shuttle from the lab in MIOMS to main campus to get the medication bag changed.

When a new bone marrow biopsy confirmed Cherry had mutations that made her disease difficult to treat with traditional therapies, she was given the choice of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy or a bone marrow transplant.

Working alongside Dojcinovski, a walking success story, she chose the transplant.

“It was so helpful having Alex. It helped with just giving me hope because it’s really scary when you don’t know what to expect,” Cherry said. “It’s so rare you can be with someone who has gone through the same thing.”

Like Dojcinovski, Cherry’s brother was her donor. She underwent the transplant in December 2022. And also like Dojcinovski, it worked.

Cherry celebrated with a birthday party with her coworkers in December 2023 to mark one year since her transplant. “My support system was amazing, to not only have my family but also the entire facility here,” she said.

Making an Impact

Today in the lab, both Dojcinovski and Cherry possess an invaluable quality: perspective. They know how important the treatments they are creating are. They know what it feels like to be hoping for a cure.

“Before, it was cool to make the product, but now experiencing it and seeing how it affects the patient and the patient’s family, I feel a lot more connected to the product,” Cherry said. “This isn’t just what I am doing today, this is just so impactful.”