World’s Longest Living Gleevec and TKI Survivor. 31 year terminal Cancer Survivor. Army Retired.
Atlanta, GA
Joined June 2009
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20 yrs ago, I had terminal #Cancer with no cure in sight. Read about my miracle! curetoday.com/community/mel-… #Retweet
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WILLIAM COLEY: THE SURGEON WHO FOUGHT CANCER WITH INFECTION
In 1890, a 28-year-old New York surgeon lost a 17-year-old patient. Bessie Dashiell had a bone tumor in her hand. He amputated her forearm. She died ten weeks later.
William Coley went digging through old hospital files. He found a man whose neck sarcoma vanished after a bad skin infection, then tracked him down in Manhattan. Still cancer-free.
In 1891, Coley injected live streptococcus into a patient's tonsil tumor. It melted away. Two later patients died, so he switched to killed bacteria. Coley's toxins were used until 1962.
He died April 16, 1936, at 74, his method still doubted by much of medicine.
Today they call him the father of cancer immunotherapy.
ALT William B. Coley, the New York surgeon called the father of cancer immunotherapy, in a 1911 black-and-white portrait: wavy hair, thick mustache, dark suit and bow tie, with his signature below.
In the Phase III Krascendo 1 trial of 338 patients with previously treated KRAS G12C-mutated lung cancer, Roche's divarasib reached a median survival of 17.7 months versus 12.0 on sotorasib or adagrasib. It also nearly doubled the response rate, 58% versus 32%.
A Roche drug billed as a potential blockbuster helped patients with a form of lung cancer that had spread live almost six months longer than two competitive medicines, according to new findings bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." — Audre Lorde
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VINCENT DEVITA: FOUR DRUGS, ONE CURE
In the early 1960s, advanced Hodgkin's disease killed almost everyone who had it. Many doctors thought giving several cancer drugs at once would just kill patients faster.
Vincent DeVita, a young fellow at the National Cancer Institute, tried it anyway. He helped build MOPP, a four-drug combination. In 1965, he presented the first results. The room didn't believe him.
The numbers held. The chance of dying from Hodgkin's fell from nearly 100% to about 30%.
In 1980, at 45, he became director of the NCI.
He gave the doubters a cure instead of an argument.
ALT Vincent DeVita, the National Cancer Institute doctor whose four-drug MOPP combination made advanced Hodgkin's disease curable, in an official portrait: glasses, dark suit and tie, arms crossed, in front of a curved hospital building under a cloudy sky.
In the 464-patient G-HOPE-001 trial, Takeda's arcotatug tavatecan lifted median survival to 10.2 months from 6.9 on chemo in advanced Claudin 18.2-positive stomach cancer after at least two prior treatments. Progression-free survival more than doubled, to 7.1 months from 3.1.
Takeda to seek Japan approval for gastric cancer drug next year reut.rs/4so27PX reut.rs/4so27PX
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JAMES F. HOLLAND: TWO DRUGS AT ONCE
In 1953, childhood leukemia was a death sentence. One drug might buy a few months. Then the cancer came back.
James Holland, not yet 30 and working at the National Cancer Institute, designed a trial that gave two drugs together, methotrexate and mercaptopurine. It became the first multicenter study of acute leukemia, run by a group later called Cancer and Leukemia Group B.
He kept pushing. With Emil Frei and Emil Freireich, he helped build a four-drug regimen that put children into lasting remission. By 1975, half of kids with the disease were alive ten years out.
He died March 22, 2018, at 92.
He bet that cancer couldn't outrun every drug at once.
ALT James F. Holland, a pioneer of combination chemotherapy for childhood leukemia, in a black-and-white photo: dark-rimmed glasses, white lab coat and polka-dot tie, leaning on lab equipment.
In the Phase III CLARITY-Gastric01 trial, AstraZeneca's sonesitatug vedotin doubled median survival to 10.0 months from 5.0 in advanced Claudin 18.2-positive stomach cancer after at least two prior treatments. It also caused fewer severe treatment-related side effects than standard options, 36.4% versus 44.8%.
AstraZeneca's stomach cancer drug clears bar for extending overall survival in late-stage study reut.rs/48evDOQ reut.rs/48evDOQ
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MIN CHIU LI: FIRED FOR CURING CANCER
In 1957, the National Cancer Institute fired Min Chiu Li. His offense was refusing to stop chemotherapy after his patients' tumors had vanished.
Before him, about 90% of women with choriocarcinoma, a cancer of the placenta, died within a year. In 1955 his first patient, 24, was near death from a bleeding lung tumor. He gave her methotrexate. Within four months she showed no sign of disease.
Li kept dosing until a hormone in the blood, hCG, fell back to normal. Patients who stopped early relapsed. His were cured.
In 1972 he won the Lasker Award.
He trusted the blood test over what doctors could see.
ALT Min Chiu Li, the oncologist who first cured widely spread cancer with chemotherapy, in a black-and-white National Cancer Institute portrait.
PATIENT SPOTLIGHT:
• LAURA RYAN
• GLIOBLASTOMA (GRADE 4 BRAIN CANCER)
• IRELAND (LIMERICK)
Glioblastoma, an incurable grade 4 brain cancer, was growing in Laura Ryan's brain when she collapsed with a seizure at a work conference just before her 50th birthday. After surgery at Cork University Hospital, she finished six weeks of chemoradiotherapy and six more cycles of chemo, and she kept running, even completing the Great Limerick Run six months after surgery. When the tumour returned this autumn, she faced a second operation while pushing as a patient advocate with Cancer Trials Ireland for faster molecular testing and fairer access to clinical trials. She wants every person who hears the word glioblastoma to know that every appropriate option has been explored for them.
Read story here:
irishtimes.com/health/your-w…
Story via The Irish Times
#BrainCancer #Glioblastoma
In the 703-patient SigVie-002 trial, sigvotatug vedotin did not beat docetaxel chemo on overall survival in previously treated lung cancer. Pfizer is pinning hopes on the two-thirds of patients with only one prior treatment, where a stronger trend showed, and is already testing it with Keytruda as a first-line therapy.
Pfizer sees a path forward for an experimental lung cancer drug in combination with other medicines, despite it failing a key clinical trial bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
"I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left." — Randy Pausch
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HAROLD VARMUS: THE ENGLISH MAJOR WHO FOUND CANCER HIDING IN OUR OWN GENES
In 1976, Harold Varmus and Michael Bishop showed that a cancer gene carried by a chicken virus had started out as a normal gene in healthy cells.
Varmus nearly never got there. He graduated from Amherst in English literature and earned a Harvard master's in English in 1962. Harvard Medical School rejected him twice.
Their finding set off the hunt for the genes that drive human cancers. In 1989, at 49, he shared the Nobel Prize with Bishop.
He went on to run the NIH from 1993 to 1999, then the National Cancer Institute from 2010 to 2015.
He gave cancer research a map of broken genes.
ALT Harold Varmus, the Nobel-winning scientist who traced cancer genes to normal cells, in a black-and-white portrait: glasses, mustache, white lab coat over a checked shirt and tie.
PATIENT SPOTLIGHT:
• TONY HOUT
• STAGE 3C MELANOMA
• USA (HOUSTON, TEXAS)
Melanoma began for Tony Hout as a sore on his ear that wouldn't heal after a bad sunburn at his son's soccer game. A biopsy confirmed it, and surgery at UT MD Anderson found it had spread to a lymph node in his neck, making it stage 3C. He joined a Phase 3 trial testing a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine with immunotherapy and pushed through months of exhausting side effects to finish every injection. Today he continues follow-up care and hopes his part in the research helps others with melanoma.
Read story here:
mdanderson.org/cancerwise/me…
Story via UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
#Melanoma #CancerResearch
The 695-patient VOLGA trial enrolled people who couldn't take or declined cisplatin chemo, a group that often went straight to bladder removal. The combo cut the risk of death by 42%, and 45% had no cancer left at surgery versus 10% with surgery alone.
Presented at #ESMO26:
In patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, event-free survival at 24 months was 63.5% with perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant enfortumab vedotin as compared with 45.1% with surgery alone. Full phase 3 VOLGA trial results: nej.md/4z7dQFm
@myESMO
ALT A graph showing event-free survival for the durvalumab–enfortumab vedotin (EV) and control groups (intention-to-treat population).
"Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul." — Jim Valvano
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RACHEL CARSON: THE WRITER WHO HID HER CANCER TO WARN THE WORLD
In 1960, Rachel Carson was finishing two chapters on cancer for a book about pesticides. Then she found a lump in her own breast. She was 52.
She had a mastectomy. By December, she knew the tumor was malignant and had spread. She told almost no one, so the chemical companies couldn't call her book biased.
Silent Spring came out on Sept. 27, 1962. Through radiation treatments, she defended it on TV and testified before a Senate subcommittee in 1963.
She died on April 14, 1964, at 56, in Silver Spring, Maryland.
She spent her last strength on everyone else's health.
ALT Rachel Carson, the biologist who wrote Silent Spring while secretly fighting breast cancer, in a black-and-white portrait: short wavy hair, smiling, white collar over a dark jacket.
PATIENT SPOTLIGHT:
• ANDREA COMPTON
• OVARIAN CANCER
• NEW ZEALAND (WELLINGTON)
Ovarian cancer reached Andrea Compton by way of an emergency department, after a January holiday when something just didn't feel right. She was diagnosed in February 2026, had surgery in March to remove a huge tumour, then finished six rounds of chemotherapy in September. Doctors feared stage three, but it turned out to be stage one, and the Wellington City councillor's cancer is now in remission. She shared her story so women who feel off push for answers early.
Read story here:
rnz.co.nz/news/regions_local…
Story via RNZ
#OvarianCancer #Frocktober
In the Phase 3 DeLLphi-305 trial of 563 patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, adding Imdelltra to Imfinzi cut the risk of death by 58%, with median survival of 21.1 months versus 12.7. Nearly 80% were alive at one year, compared with 53% on Imfinzi alone.
A combination of powerful Amgen and AstraZeneca drugs helped patients with an aggressive form of lung cancer to live longer, data presented at the ESMO oncology meeting showed. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
