New London ― David Pierson had his hands full last week as he headed to an appointment with his urologist at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital.

What was he carrying beneath that sheet?

A urothelial cancer patient for more than 20 years, Pierson’s options were few when Dr. Joseph Brito deemed him a candidate for Jelmyto, a new formulation of mitomycin, a chemotherapy drug used for decades in the treatment of various cancers, including those of the urinary tract and kidneys.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020, Jelmyto had never been delivered to a patient in Connecticut. Pierson would be the first to receive it.

The timing was fortuitous.

After Pierson’s right kidney had been removed, tumors began to show up elsewhere in his urinary tract ― in the lining of his bladder, his remaining kidney and a ureter, a tube that funnels urine from the kidney to the bladder. In endoscopic procedures, doctors destroyed the tumors with lasers, but they were exceedingly hard to locate ― or, if microscopic, went undetected ― and the surgeries left harmful scarring.

“Because David had one kidney, if we had had to remove it, he would have been on dialysis ― likely for the rest of his life,” Brito said, referring to the machine that filters impurities from the blood.

At 65, Pierson didn’t relish the prospect.

The beauty of Jelmyto is that it’s a gel rather than a liquid and once delivered to an affected area through a catheter, it stays in place for several hours.

Pierson, who had a tumor removed from this bladder last year, began a course of six once-a-week Jelmyto treatments in March; outpatient procedures, they involved general anesthesia.

Since the treatments, Pierson’s kidney function has improved and he appears to be free of cancer, Brito said.

“I hesitate to use the term ‘cured,’ but I’m very encouraged,” he said.

In a study, 58% of patients who received Jelmyto reported their tumors disappeared following their initial course of treatment. Most of those who responded in a follow-up reported they still were tumor-free after 12 months.

The unveiling

Pierson, a Shelton resident who used to live in Montville, said he experienced no side effects of the drug, the most serious of which can include swelling and narrowing of the ureter and bone marrow problems, according to the drug’s manufacturer, UroGen Pharma.

“I tell people I’m living longer because I have cancer,” Pierson said. “It was a wake-up ”call.”

He explained that when he was 44, the initial discovery of his cancer ― blood in his urine was the telltale symptom ― caused him to quit the more-than-two-packs-a-day cigarette smoking habit he had pursued since high school. When that led him to put on 30 pounds, resulting in a diagnosis of diabetes, he lost the excess weight through diet and exercise.

“I’m in better health now than at any time in my life,” he said.

Though the cause of a particular case of cancer is rarely known for certain, Pierson said he’s been told his case was likely the smoking or exposure to a dye used at a rubber factory near where he once lived in Moosup, a village in Plainfield.

Brito said all urothelial cancers are strongly linked to smoking and exposure to chemicals. He said Pierson’s form of cancer is rare and that it’s particularly rare for it to occur at the relatively early age at which Pierson’s did.

A retired sales representative for an oil company, Pierson pursues blacksmithing as a hobby, having learned it from his father when he was 8 years old. The endeavor has everything to do with the sheet-covered treasure he brought to his appointment with Brito last week.

Inside the doctor’s examining room, Pierson raised the sheet to reveal an anatomically correct sculpture of the male urinary tract, which he said he fashioned from scrap metal.

“I feel like I’m blessed,” Pierson said. “I’ve kicked cancer in the butt for 20 years.”

“Awesome!” Brito, clearly delighted with the sculpture, said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com