Steve Took a Chance on a New Treatment, Now He’s Cancer-Free

There seemed to be no more wiggle room — the walls were closing in on Steve Hurm. Five years of fighting prostate cancer only felt like delaying the inevitable once he learned he might have less than 24 months to live.

In 2021, Steve’s doctor informed him that the spreading disease had developed resistance to every medicine that had been tried. It was crucial to identify any new therapy that would have better results. The news was just as jarring as his original cancer diagnosis on May 5, 2016, when a biopsy first revealed his cancer at the age of 60.

“It rocked me,” Steve said. “I had no symptoms, really. There was nothing that would suggest to me that I was ill.”

Steve was active and enjoyed playing golf, nature photography and running. There was no way to know the cancer growing inside him could quickly take all that away.

As a former director of licensing at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Steve had seen his fair share of challenges. However, his cancer diagnosis was the biggest one he would face.

His wife, Gwen Graham, daughter of former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, knew in an instant that the journey ahead would be long and emotional for them both.

The couple immediately took action and initiated Steve’s care at Moffitt Cancer Center. But later, he transferred his care to UF Health cancer expert Jonathan Chatzkel, MD, when his oncologist at Moffitt retired.

Initially, Steve received androgen deprivation therapy along with chemotherapy to treat his prostate cancer, which had metastasized. This combination therapy initially lowered his prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, levels.

But the cancer continued to spread, threatening to take his life in less than two years.

A second chance

As one of the state’s only NCI-designated cancer centers, UF Health is an early adopter of a new radiopharmaceutical technology. When Steve became eligible for this treatment in 2022, he decided to give it a chance.

Steve was referred to Kathryn Hitchcock, MD, PhD, specifically to receive this new leading-edge radiopharmaceutical therapy. This approach provided a means to target only the cancer cells without harming healthy cells.

“Radiopharmaceuticals, in simple terms, are molecules that stick to cancer, and to those, we’ve attached an atom that’s radioactive,” Dr. Hitchcock explained. “We give them to people as an IV. They briefly swirl all over their body, but pretty quickly, they stick to cancer cells and kill them.”

These drugs leverage the fact that compared with normal cells, cancer cells often have impaired DNA repair mechanisms. Since they can’t effectively handle the DNA damage induced by the radiopharmaceuticals, the cancer cells die or are stopped in their tracks.

“The issue is when I send radiation in from outside the body, it’s got to pass through a whole lot of normal tissue,” Dr. Hitchcock said. “Then, it can cause side effects, like upset stomach or red, angry skin or various things depending on which part of the body I’m treating.”

The Food and Drug Administration directs that patients receive at least one round of taxane-based chemotherapy before they can undergo radiopharmaceutical therapy. At times, that resulted in patients being on chemotherapy for months with severe side effects before physicians like Dr. Hitchcock ever met them.

However, a shift is underway that’s introducing radiopharmaceutical therapy at earlier stages of treatment.

“Now, experts are placing patients on chemotherapy one time, and if it doesn’t sit well with them, they immediately refer the patients to me,” Dr. Hitchcock said. “There’s a new study about to be released that shows that treating patients with radiopharmaceutical therapy, even before they receive chemotherapy, is advantageous.”

After receiving six rounds of radiopharmaceutical treatment, Steve was delighted by the results. In October 2024, a follow-up prostate-specific membrane antigen, or PSMA, PET scan showed no detectable cancer.

“Now, the cancer is nowhere,” Steve said. “I mean, all the tumors that they had seen have disappeared. They’re either gone or shrunken to the point where the PSMA PET scan can’t pick them up.”

However, his UF Health team of caregivers spotted another issue that needed attention.

Collaboration and compassion

During one of Steve’s regular appointments, Dr. Hitchcock could tell by looking at him that something was wrong.

A CT scan was performed to look for his cancer, but the scan also revealed enlarged pulmonary arteries. Dr. Hitchcock immediately referred Steve to a UF Health pulmonologist to assess the condition of his pulmonary arteries while she worked on treating his cancer

“You’ve got to take care of the whole person. That’s why I love working at UF Health because the multidisciplinary specialists are so tightly knit. It took one quick phone call to get Steve set up with the right doctor for that issue,” Dr. Hitchcock said. “Steve listened to me, which is to his credit, and he went and got that sorted out and immediately started feeling better.”

Gwen felt that her husband couldn’t have been in a better place. UF Health provided Steve an emerging form of cancer therapy, but Gwen was equally impacted by the patient-first care they experienced.

“I’ve been involved with a lot of different health care systems, and knowing that Steve was being treated at UF Health gave me great peace. I knew we were getting the best care for him,” Gwen said. “They’re kind, they’re warm, they answer questions, particularly for a spouse who has a lot of them. They genuinely care about the people they’re treating.”

Steve has established a personal relationship with his whole UF Health care team. He smiles when recalling how Dr. Hitchcock saw his scan results within 10 minutes and immediately texted him, saying the news made her jump up and dance.

“Everybody I have dealt with at UF Health has been stellar. From the physicians and nurses to the folks who check you in to the guy who takes my blood every time, we’ve all gotten to know each other,” Steve said. “There must be something about being part of the Gator Nation. Everybody there has just been exceptional.”

A new outlook on life

Steve knows it’s odd to say it, but he’s glad he had prostate cancer.

“Appreciating every day is something that I don’t think I did enough of before I had cancer,” Steve said. “So, I’m grateful for the experience. I really am.”

Being able to offer patients a healthy life after a cancer diagnosis is always a special feeling for Dr. Hitchcock. Still, she says that’s especially true when it involves patients who are in the position Steve was.

“It was not too many generations ago when nobody survived cancer,” Dr. Hitchcock said. “Now, every day, I get to bring somebody the news that their cancer is gone. But it means the most for patients like Steve, where things up front looked quite grim, but through the power of this new medication, brought to us with science and careful research, here he is with us years later, doing well. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

The second chance for Steve meant spending more time with family, getting back to golf, taking more pictures and running. He’s able to live in the present without worrying that he only has a few months to live.

The treatment he received at UF Health, which included those lifesaving radiopharmaceuticals, has caused the photographer to look at things through a different lens.

“I’ll be 69 next month, but I will say I’m more mellow. I am certainly happy,” Steve said. “This experience has changed my perspective on life. I see things differently. I notice blue jays singing outside the window and appreciate everything life has to offer.”