Col. Gary Steele had faced adversity before. The 77-year-old retired Army colonel is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a cadet in 1966, he broke the color barrier, becoming the first African American to play varsity football at West Point.

In 2011, he faced a different battle — prostate cancer. Since his diagnosis, he has made it a mission to inform other African American men about their increased risk of prostate cancer and the importance of screening.

“I didn’t know I was at higher risk, but now I do, and I want to make as many people as possible aware.”

Col. Steele’s two sons are among those he told. They have been screened and are now helping to spread the word.

Despite early diagnosis, robotic surgery to remove his prostate, and radiation therapy, Steele’s prostate cancer returned, and even worse, it had spread. The doctors who had been treating him had no other options to offer. That’s when Col. Steele turned to the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and prostate cancer expert Michael Carducci, M.D. It was the first time anyone discussed clinical trials — research studies of promising new treatments.

Since coming to the Kimmel Cancer Center, Steele has participated in two trials. The first therapy didn’t help his prostate cancer, so in 2015, he began the second clinical trial — one that compares standard hormonal therapy to increased doses of hormonal therapy.

Col. Steele says he feels very emotionally connected to his Kimmel Cancer Center team.

“I believe in the people I have met at Johns Hopkins. I trust them, and have faith that they care about me and are trying to do the best for me. They are not doing something that is just about research,” says Steele. 

The second treatment worked, and Col. Steele’s prostate-specific antigen level (PSA) steadily declined until it became undetectable, an indicator that the treatment he received during the second clinical trial was working. There has been no sign of prostate cancer since 2014.

“If they learn something from this study that could one day help someone else, that would be wonderful,” he adds.

This ability to think beyond himself in service to others was instilled in him by his parents. 

Col. Steele’s father, Frank Steele, enlisted in the U.S. Army in the 1940s, and his first duty station was at West Point, where he served in a regiment composed of Black soldiers, known as the Buffalo Soldiers. 

Decades later, Col. Steele and his brother attended West Point as cadets. Col. Steele gained a great appreciation for the value of teamwork on the football field.

“I was just one person. I was the only Black guy on the team, but we were a team,” he said. “It takes more than one to win.”

Col. Steele has since been inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame. Military and football taught him about discipline and hope in the face of adversity. It had helped him many times in his life, including during his battle against prostate cancer, and in 2017 he would need to call upon it again, when he learned the cause of the severe back pain he was experiencing was multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma is rare cancer of the blood plasma cells that can cause bony lesions that lead to pain and even fractures. It disproportionately affects African Americans.

Despite its rarity, Col. Steele was not unfamiliar with the cancer. A long-time family friend and wife of a fellow West Point cadet had died from multiple myeloma. During her treatment, she participated in a clinical trial that led to a new therapy that is now a standard treatment for the cancer and is helping thousands of patients. Steele is one of them.

It hit home for him as another deeply personal reminder of the value of clinical trials.

He does not know what researchers learned from the prostate clinical trial and how it may be used to help patients. He has two sons. He thinks about the possibility of what the researchers learned one day helping them, and offers some advice.

“Educate yourself, take care of yourself, think of your family and pay it forward,” he says. “At the end of the day, there is that one saying on your tombstone. There is the date you were born. And there is the date you die, but there is also a dash in between. So, the question is really about what you do with that dash.”