Posted on 05/05/2025 5:00:30 PM PDT by Enterprise
Kelly Spill didn’t cry when she was diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer at age 28.
She held her emotions together when her surgeon told her that she might not be able to carry another baby — treatment with radiation can significantly affect fertility — and that she might need to have a colostomy bag attached to her to collect her bodily waste after surgery.
“I didn’t cry at both of those,” said Spill, who at the time was newly engaged and just months postpartum.
After welcoming son Jayce into the world, she and her fiancé had planned to elope to Switzerland. But after her cancer diagnosis, they opted for a quick, local winter wedding instead.
(Snip)
Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that harnesses a person’s own immune system to target and fight the disease. Dostarlimab, developed by the pharmaceutical company GSK and sold under the brand name Jemperli, has been found in previous research to make solid tumors essentially disappear among people with rectal cancer. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration designated dostarlimab to be a “breakthrough therapy” for the treatment of certain rectal cancers.
But the new study, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the immunotherapy treatment worked against not only advanced rectal cancer but other cancer types too, allowing patients to avoid surgery and other types of more invasive treatment to cure their disease.
Spill received 30-minute intravenous infusions of dostarlimab at a medical facility every three weeks and said she had no adverse side effects.
“It took four treatments until I found out that the tumor was halfway gone, and then by my ninth treatment, the tumor had completely disappeared. And I was then told I was cancer-free at that point,” Spill said.
(Excerpt) Read more at lite.cnn.com ...
That should not have have happened to the poor young woman.
https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2020/colorectal-cancer-rising-younger-adults
My wife was diagnosed with melanoma in her lungs nine years ago. She was in a drug trial for four years, but the cancer grew.
Five years ago she started immunotherapy using Opdivo (nivolumab) and her tumors shrunk. For five years she attended 30 minute transfusions every four weeks. Her cancer had shrunk drastically and it was suggested she stay in immunotherapy as long as it yielded results.
Last month she passed, not from the cancer but cardiac arrest following septic shock. After 9 years fighting cancer, her immune system was weakened. But immunotherapy works!
My condolences. For a time she had hope and a continued life with you. So sorry it finally ended.
So sorry for your loss. Prayers for you.
Just did a series of Provenge for metastatic prostate cancer after Nubeqa. PSA went from 1.5 to 5.3.
Feel good but not sure where this goes
review
Do you have the before and after numbers reversed?
Thank you for your kind comments. We just hit 50 years together, I’ve never felt so alone.
No. (Prostatectomy 2008) Eligard every 6 months.
Nubeqa 2/10/2022 until Nov. 2024
PSA 1.5 11/14/24 started on Provenge
PSA 3.79 1/23/25 after completion
PSA 5.11 3/6/25
PSA 5.86 5/6/25
May our blessed Lord send you comfort and peace.
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