Under the social media name "sissy beats lymphoma," Alizabeth Rhodes documented the days after getting diagnosed with stage four cancer.
One video opens with a scene from her “before life,” showing the teen walking through her high school hallways with friends, her long blond hair swaying over her shoulders.
But the next series of pictures share the harder days: having a chemotherapy port placed under her skin, regular hospitalizations, trouble eating because of mouth sores and chunks of hair falling out with every brush.
“I wanted to share what I was going through to help people understand. It’s a lot harder than you think,” she said.
“I sometimes felt like giving up but realized I couldn’t. I want to tell other people to never give up.”
Now, after nearly a year of treatment and getting a successful bone marrow transplant at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, the 17-year-old is ready to get back to regular life.
“It was a long journey and I know I’m not finished yet,” she said. “But I’m doing good and I’m glad to be home.
“I finally got here, but I didn’t do it alone.”
An extremely rare diagnosis
Nicknamed “sissy” by her family, as the sister to two brothers, and known as “Lizzy” by her care teams, Alizabeth faced a rare aggressive type of non-Hodkin lymphoma.
It was especially rare for her young age. Called peripheral T-cell lymphoma, the disease is most typical for older adults ages 55 to 74.
The blood cancer develops from mature white blood cells called T-cells and natural killer cells and can affect almost every part of the body. In Alizabeth’s case, it had spread to multiple organs.
Mott specialists reached out to peers across the country as they finalized a treatment plan.
“Being referred to a full multidisciplinary team was really key to her case,” said Joshua Goldman, M.D., her primary pediatric oncologist at Mott.
“Lizzy had non-specific symptoms. We consulted with not only our internal oncology and pathology teams, but also with colleagues nationally to confidently reach a consensus on her condition and to help guide her treatment course. There are maybe a handful of cases like hers and no standard treatment for this specific disease for someone her age.”
The journey to becoming cancer free
Alizabeth was diagnosed in July 2023, spending most of the next nine months in and out of the hospital, with intense chemotherapy treatments every few weeks that often required a weeklong hospitalization or longer.
After nearly seven months, tests indicated that the cancer cells were gone – but she still needed a bone marrow transplant.
Typically for lymphoma, the Mott pediatric bone marrow transplant team would use a patient’s own stem cells to replace the bone marrow. But in Alizabeth’s case, there was concern about the possibility of lymphoma cells being reinfused into her body during a transplant since the cancer had also affected her bone marrow.
There are maybe a handful of cases like hers and no standard treatment for this specific disease for someone her age.”
- Joshua Goldman, M.D.
After a final round of chemo and radiation, she received a transplant from an unrelated donor from the bone marrow registry in March 2024.
She’s been in remission ever since and hasn’t had any return visits to the hospital.
“She’s shown extreme resiliency that has carried her through this very difficult treatment,” Goldman said.
