Are we out of treatment options?

I’m so sorry. I wish I had some suggestions. I hope you can find some information that helps. It must be very stressful. Are there social workers available?

So sorry to hear. This is a longshot, but I recently spoke with a relative who is being treated at U of Iowa research hospital. After chemo and radiation, Drs there said they were out of options. She looked into alternative therapy and was directed to Aretsunate, an oral anti malaria drug. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9406496/#:~:text=The%20antitumor%20effects%20of%20artesunate,manner%20(Figure%201B).
After several months, her petscan was clean. Drs are hesitant to say the drug was effective. But her nurse practitioner was very optimistic.
She also used a Rife mat https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/treatment/complementary-alternative-therapies/individual-therapies/rife-machine-and-cancer

She exhausted conventional therapies, so she was willing to try the alternative, and has had a positive outcome. I will add that she is a Christian with deep faith, and believes God brought healing through prayer and these alternatives.
I will pray for you both.

I will look into those. Thank you. I guess I am just surprised that with all of our medical knowledge and research that has gone on the last 50+ years, it boils down to 3-4 approved therapy options that are all 50% or less effective. Realizing we found this late in the game, I was just hoping for more options and obviously a better outcome. Being a data scientist myself some of the papers I have read are unbelievable and I feel that if more people knew, we would be doing a lot more to help those afflicted with Cancer.

I'm so sorry for you both.

I'm also praying for you.

As a lung cancer survivor of only 10 months, and as a data hound with a bit of a medical background, you can appreciate the deep dive I’ve done on treatments in general and specific challenges. To be sure there have been remarkable advances with genetics and immunotherapy and other targeted treatments. But there are still gaps. Leaving funding challenges aside - not to imply it is immaterial - it’s a really painstaking process to run out a ground ball in pursuit of a novel treatment that doesn’t instead kill the patient. Or do nothing at all. And it’s oh so rarely a home run. It’s years on years of ground balls. A lot of that time spent is thanks to the exacting standards and trial after trial. I think that there is perhaps an opportunity for process efficiency with centralized early processes that every developer could utilize - but the pharmaceutical companies are very turf sensitive.

All to say it’s maddeningly slow. I was sooo encouraged with the MRNA approach. Take years to build the engine and then you only need dna of the virus and an hour to make a protein that is shaped exactly like the virus and bolts onto the engine like a universal belt - and tells our immune system to seek anything that looks like this - and destroy it. (Okay maybe an hour is a stretch - but not by much!)
I just think that long term cancer treatments will be hyper individual and more like plug and play than reinventing the wheel every time.

None of which helps today. And I am so sorry for what you and your wife are enduring. Have you reached out to a premier cancer center like MD Anderson or a Memorial Sloan Kettering to see if you could ask for a consult?

I am so sorry and I totally understand your fears. Can I ask what her diet looks like? Lots of research has been done concerning cancer fighting superfoods. My son researched pineapple for school and said it help fight cancer, so I researched it and he was right! Also dandelion root… I guess in conjunction with the chemo these things can be added in and to not upset her you can eat them too and support her that way. A lady I know thru work shrunk her tumors drastically with raw garlic daily and no chemo or radiation. 87 yrs old. Your wife is trying to stay positive because to not be would be the end. I had no idea how much stress contributes to cancer growth. It’s crazy. I have stage 3c and the aggressive kind so same “brand” as her. I was allergic to the Oxaliplatin and only got 2 rounds of that. I won’t get a CT scan til May because they say increased radiation can compound and cause more cancer. So we are limiting my exposure . I have had 3 different types of cancer so I guess I am prone. I try to put thoughts of having it to the back burner so my stress stays low. Its hard. I am glad she has a supportive husband! That’s a big help! Huge! Support is essential. My church has been a great one for me as well as a group of friends and my sister and dad. Prayers cards and just getting me out to keep depression at bay. My doctor would not discuss timelines with me. They don’t want that to be afocus. I did meet a lovely gentleman during chemo with colon cancer stage 4 who had been doing chemo for 2 yrs and lost tons of weight. He said would be on chemo for the rest of his life. I pray your wife has the time you both need to find peace and make some more memories. Faith. Family. Friends. Food. Forgiveness. Fortitude.

That’s very enlightening. Best wishes to you in your journey.

Thanks. My husband has stage 4 colon spread to both lungs. 2 years of chemo. Just trying to make memories.

Hi,

It was very inspiring to read that your relative achieved clean PET Scans while on Artesunate; do you know if this was prescribed and if it was in pill form or IV? Also, do you mind finding out which Rife mat she purchased (there are many and some are scams)?

Prayers to ALL afflicted by cancer. Keep faith and believe for complete healing.

Thanks!

The Artesunate comes in pill form. I believe the company name is Allergy Research. Not sure of dosage or other specifics. The Rife mat was from TrueRife.com. It's my understanding that they need to get lots of info from you to adjust the frequency.