Clean scan compels patient to give back to MD Anderson

One day after receiving the most devastating news of his life, Scott Ferguson picked up the phone and called MD Anderson.

It was April 2024, and Scott’s Virginia-based doctor, who had diagnosed him with spindle cell sarcoma the previous July, told him the cancer had metastasized to his lungs.

“My local oncologist said I had only 12 months to live,” Scott recalls. “He told me no treatment would be successful. He told me to give away my money and plan my last trip.”

Scott, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, had already been through a lot. Because of the cancer, his left foot had been amputated in August 2023. He and his doctor had been hopeful that the cancer was gone and would not return.

Yet now that it had, Scott wasn’t ready to stop treatment.

He spoke to a friend who had been an oncology nurse in Washington, D.C.

“She recommended I reach out to MD Anderson,” Scott says. “I called the next morning.”

He was immediately impressed with his patient access representative, Kiara Casteneda.

“She was awesome,” Scott says. “She followed up very quickly on every question, was extremely professional and informative. She helped to assuage my fears with her professionalism and the speed with which I was able to complete the paperwork and scheduling process.”

Within two weeks, Scott was in Houston with Dr. Nakazawa and his team. That marked a new beginning.

Immunotherapy results in no detectable cancer

Michael Nakazawa, M.D., Ph.D., a sarcoma medical oncologist, started Scott on an intense chemotherapy regimen.

“It was hard,” Scott admits. “I vomited for almost a year.”

But the tumors shrank. And once chemo was complete, given the next-generation sequencing results of his tumor, Scott began immunotherapy with pembrolizumab. He still takes the drug, which helps his immune system fight cancer cells, and the results have been impressive.

In July 2025, Ferguson had his first clean CT scan. There was no detectable cancer.

“MD Anderson saved my life,” Scott says. “I feel such a debt of gratitude to Dr. Nakazawa and Juliana Thomas, his advanced practice provider, and Courtney Liberty, his nurse, who recently took a new role in another department. Not only have they been great resources, but they are all truly extraordinary people. Their unwavering support and genuine kindness made the darkest moments of my journey feel hopeful.”

In addition to constant nausea during his initial chemotherapy, Scott experienced challenging symptoms during his cancer treatment, including insomnia, diarrhea and uncontrollable hiccups.

“Dr. Nakazawa’s team always responded promptly with solutions and mitigations that helped,” he says. “Their advice was always technically excellent and compassionate. What made the biggest difference was how they treated me as a whole person, not just a patient — they took the time to truly understand what I was going through and made me feel valued and heard.”

Putting MD Anderson in his will

This happy shift in Scott’s health prompted another shift – this time in his estate plans.

“My wife said, we have to change our will and include MD Anderson,” Scott recalls. He knew she was right based on the treatment he’d received here.

“We don’t have any children,” he says. “We have a nephew who will inherit some of our money, but we are splitting the other half between MD Anderson and a few charities.”

They hope their legacy gift will advance MD Anderson’s mission to end cancer by helping other patients have the same outstanding level of care.

Related: Learn about adding a gift to MD Anderson to your will.

Cancer care and expertise only possible at MD Anderson

Scott still sees his local oncologist in Virginia, who administers his MD Anderson-directed immunotherapy infusion every three weeks.

Every nine weeks, Scott flies to Houston to visit his team at MD Anderson and get lab work, a CT scan, an infusion and a consultation. 

Each time he comes to Houston, he says, the news he receives about his health gets better. That’s because of MD Anderson’s standard of care and commitment to excellence.

“When I was working, my teams developed service delivery and quality assurance standards that enabled us to continually improve our service delivery processes over time,” says Scott, who retired at 56 after spending most of his career in the private sector, contracting with federal civilian agencies who outsourced IT, software development or infrastructure operations to his companies. 

“When I came to MD Anderson, I realized that every time someone does a scan or takes my blood, they do it the exact same way. That means someone established standard processes, has audited these actions and improved them over time. A standard of excellence is always being followed, and that is one of the many reasons MD Anderson is such a special place.”

To anyone facing a cancer diagnosis, Scott would urge them to seek treatment at MD Anderson.

“Go to the experts,” he says. “Go to the place where they’re creating the science and doing more clinical trials than anyone else. Go to where you’ll find the highest standard of care.”

Request an appointment at MD Anderson online or call 1-877-632-6789.