From misdiagnosed fever to remission: a college student's battle with aggressive lymphoma
Emma Operacz, a 21-year-old Eastern Michigan University student, went from thinking she had a UTI to a life-threatening stage IV ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma; after a difficult treatment course that included an experimental drug to cross the blood–brain barrier and a sister-donor bone marrow transplant, she spent months recovering before graduating in December 2025 and beginning a graduate program to work with cancer patients.