One Very Successful Year and Counting

[TomAnderson]

It was one year ago today I received my first immunotherapy infusion after being diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. My initial scan three months later showed a 75-85% shrinkage in tumors and ten months into treatment I was told there was No Evidence of Disease. That is the state of cancer treatment today; bright sunshine has replaced the dark clouds.

[Denzie Moderator Volunteer]

That’s great news! I’m very happy for you and your loved ones. And thank you for sharing your story and hope.

[Swimdown]

That’s wonderful news👍

[CLD2401]

This is wonderful news. I’m very happy for you.

[etpd2226]

awesome perfect outcome congrats

[JeanE41]

Outstanding!!! Here's to many more years of NED.

[JanetteR57]

Updates like yours are golden and give so much hope... here's to many more anniversaries like this...

[TomAnderson in reply to JanetteR57]

It's amazing how few people know about immunotherapy and the amazing things it's doing. To go from Stage IV to NED is ten months is the kind of treatment we need for all cancer patients.

[JanetteR57]

For those who respond, it can be amazing - problem is they still don't know who will respond well or not. in UK pandemic allowed access to immunotherapy to many whose PDL1 scores previously wouldn't have give access and these were not the patient population in the trials for whom approval originally given. So long as it's working, that's the main thing... there is a heap of research exploring its use in other types of lung and other cancers as not all types respond in the same way as impacted by patient's own immune system and many are clinically excluded if they have an autoimmune issue like lupus, Crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis..

[TomAnderson in reply to JanetteR57]

You are so right. It works so well for some but not others. My oncologist says he'll try with a PD-L1 expression of 1% but likes it to be at least 30%. My was 100% so the odds were stacked in my favor right from the beginning. It is too bad it doesn't work yet on more varieties of cancer and that is one of the psychological burdens those of us receiving successful immunotherapy have to bear; that survivor's guilt.

[JanetteR57 in reply to TomAnderson]

Try not to have survivors' guilt if you can help it - several patient advocates I've had the good fortune to know who encouraged my involvement are no longer with us but that guides me through believing I must still be here for a reason - to be their voice now they're no longer with us and others.... Research findings in recent years have taught us so much about how variable lung cancers are yet the general public and many medics still believe it's the same disease which it clearly isn't - it's the science and knowledge that will hopefully provide the evidence to will lead researchers to understand why some don't respond and develop agents to target whatever is driving their cancer .. one irony is that for patients who smoked there is often higher tumour burden so more targets to aim for....These things take time, the speed of trials, research and knowledge improvement in the last 5-6 years has been immense in lung cancer and the global imperative to improve patient outcomes is fierce.... good luck...

[TomAnderson in reply to JanetteR57]

Very well said. Thank you. The lack of knowledge of immunotherapy on the part of the general public is amazing. They all think in terms of traditional surgery, chemo and radiation and don't understand it no longer has to be like that. Had that conversation again today with a friend in the grocery store. There is so much reason for some of us to be hopeful and I think we need to be the ones to tell the world that we had cancer and through immunotherapy we now have NED. The hope is real.

[Michelezeh Administrator]

That is great news! Thank you for sharing Tom.