The second TIL post

[Joan37]

Thanks for posting about the woman who received TILs and whose cancer went away. However, there were two other women with breast cancer in that trial who did not respond to the treatment. I think the news about Judy Perkins is excellent and I'm hoping that research on TILs gets better for us, but we need balanced reporting.

Here's a story about what really happened from my good friend Katherine, who is on Twitter as @ihatebreastcancer. Katherine is an active MBC advocate and one smart cookie:

linkedin.com/pulse/metastat...

[nstonerocks]

Thanks. That is a very informative, well balanced article and gives me much more insight into what this trial entails, the actual results, which are promising, but not stellar and not ready for prime time. I am still hopeful that something really good will come from this for many of us, but I am back to square one with a disease that is still currently incurable for all of us save one (so far). The ups and downs get to be too much sometimes.

[Tap321]

Thank you for sharing. Nice to know all sides.

[PJBinMI]

Thank you for this link! Far too often, IMHO, early reports of new treatment success get way overblown. I have gotten jaded but am also heartened by the number of new drugs that have been approved just in the years I've been living with mbc. BC is complicated and I don't know if there will ever be one single "cure." I do appreciate thoughtful articles like Katherine's and am glad you brought it to our attention.

[Joan37 in reply to PJBinMI]

I agree about getting overblown. That's really the problem. The events surrounding Judy Perkins are wonderful, and it's fabulous that someone with MBC had the response that she had. But a downside of the media hype is that people may think MBC is now curable since they don't have all the facts, and that could affect funding for research for us.

[RLN-overcomer]

Sister/Warrior thank you for this article. There have been lots of research studies on immunotherapy in the pass tens years. We all want, and pray for a cure so desperately, that we didn't read up on this particular research study which showed 2 of the 3 sisters/warriors in the study did not live due to their cancer diagnosis. I am grateful for the 1 sister/warrior who is currently cured, or has NED. I do celebrate her outcome. Also in this research study, all of these sister/warriors had a stage IV diagnosis, where the drugs were no longer working to stop the cancer from progressing. I diligently pray for a Breast cancer cure that will be available for, not just those who are affluent. I am grateful, and I do thank God for the inroads that have been made thus far, that have saved so many lives. Amen Praise and prayer will be in my mouth, and in the core of my being, as we wait for for the day we win this war on this disease.

[Joan37]

Thank you for your thoughts. I too celebrate Judy's success, which is really a success for all of us, because at least one person with MBC had the best response a patient could possibly get. And I too pray that research moves along to bring more of us all into that fold.