Miracles are still possible.
I wanted to share with you a wonderful story about a 36 year old patient with metastatic colon cancer. I met her about 18 months ago when she was referred to me for chemotherapy. She had a large tumor in her colon which was almost obstructing. We recommended surgery and the tumor was successfully removed. Unfortunately the liver showed numerous metastases in both lobes of the liver. The liver was almost completely consumed with cancer. She was told by her oncologist she has 3-6 months to live. She was very depressed but heard about our center and the advantages of clinical trials and wanted to do everything to fight this disease. She was proactive looking and checking out all her possibilities.
We met her and developed a plan which included enrolling her in a clinical trial. She was assigned to FOLFIRI and Avastin and Erbitux. We were very happy that she was able to get both antibodies since only Avastin is approved for metastatic disease. Previous Bond II studies have suggested that these two antibodies are safe and active in patients with refractory colon cancer.
She was very excited and ready to go. She tolerated the chemotherapy very well with no significant side effects. We checked her CEA and did CT scans every 8 weeks to check the success of her chemotherapy.
After 2 months of treatment the tumors in the liver did shrink a lot and some of them disappeared. After six months of chemotherapy the tumors continue to shrink and we discussed her in our multidisciplinary tumor board meeting, where oncologists, hepatobiliary surgeons, colorectal surgeons and interventional radiologists discuss whether it is possible to resect the liver lesion.
The surgeons were hesitant because at the time of diagnosis the lesions were so numerous that in their opinion, there was no chance of cure. However we convinced them to take a risk in this young healthy woman. The surgery took place about 12 months ago. It was an extensive surgery and we have to thank our hepatobiliary surgeon for a 12 hour surgery during which they resected all tumors lesions but they found also lesions they could not remove and used high frequency ablation.
After surgery, a CT scan and the tumor marker showed no cancer anymore.
She is now 10 months out and the follow up CT scan shows no cancer. It is too early to say she is cured, but no one would have ever believed we could get her cancer free, but we proved them wrong. She was treated after surgery with further chemotherapy.
Her insurance did not initially allow her to be treated at USC. I called the Medical Director of the HMO and pointed out the chances that she will beat this and if not treated I will recommend legal actions since they are violating standard of care.
The next week she was in my office and completed our therapies and she doing very well and will be featured with other success in our newest cancer center report.
Check out my curriculum of past blog posts as well as much more important information on colorectal cancer.
HJ Lenz is a licensed practitioner of Medical Oncology who has been engaged by Revolution Health. No information in this blog is intended to diagnose or treat any condition. The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Revolution Health.
