Spencer Laird's second cancer diagnosis only gave him two years to live
Credit: Shawn Rocco/Duke Health
NEED TO KNOW
- Spencer Laird was diagnosed with colon cancer at 26 and later found it had spread to his lungs
- He joined a clinical trial for immunotherapy, which reduced his tumors from 13 to three
- Doctors are optimistic about his remission, calling his progress “uncharted territory”
A young dad named Spencer Laird was diagnosed with colon cancer around age 26, but was treated with a surgery that removed 16 inches of his colon.
Because of this, and the fact that two years had passed, Spencer believed he was in the clear. He went back to work and enjoyed his daily life, until he went with his wife CarleyAnn Laird to a follow-up appointment in December 2024.
"They had already checked out everything and said 'everything looks good to go,' " Spencer recalled to CBS News. "And she said, 'No, he's been sleeping a lot lately, he's been tired a lot.' She told him that she wanted him to do a full body scan on me."
Credit: Duke Health
After this scan, Spencer found out that not only had his cancer returned, but it had spread to his lungs. He had 13 tumors, and one was the size of a golf ball, according to the outlet. Because of this, Spencer's doctor estimated he only had about two years to live.
"So much went through my head," Spencer said. "I just thought: I'm 30 years old. I've got a wife. I've got a 5-year-old little girl. There was the shock of it."
"I stayed up days and just stared at his scans," CarleyAnn added. "This was strictly me not wanting to lose my husband and having to tell my 5-year-old."
Credit: Shawn Rocco/Duke Health
CarleyAnn applied for various clinical trials on behalf of her husband, including gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Nicholas DeVito's study on immunotherapy. However, this method is typically only used if a patient doesn't respond to chemotherapy, which Spencer hadn't tried.
DeVito explained that it is the "fourth or fifth line of defense," and there were "nice responses in about a quarter of patients."
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"I don't like to say you have nothing to lose, but that's kind of the only way to put it," Spencer said. "When you get a diagnosis like that, why not try something that you don't know anything about?"
He then enrolled in DeVito's clinical trial in February 2025, being one of 15 patients to receive an immunotherapy infusion every few weeks. Thankfully, it seemed to be working, as Spencer's tumors decreased to just three.
"It's a miracle. It's really a miracle from God," he said. "Looking at where it started and where it is now, it's just unbelievable."
Spencer's side effects subsided in spring 2025, and CarleyAnn said it's been "smooth sailing" ever since.
"In a nutshell, this was a diagnosis that would probably have shortened his life to five years or less, at best," DeVito said. "And now we're thinking 'Well, is he cured? How long does this remission last? Is it permanent? How does this cancer stay away?' We're really drifting into uncharted territory."
Although Spencer is not entirely cancer-free, he no longer has a terminal diagnosis. "It really just taught me to try to live life," he shared. "There's no sense sitting around being lazy. If the good Lord wakes you up every day and you got breath in your lungs, just go do something."
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