Immunotherapy

1-25-21

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. It increases the production of T-cells in your body, which help fight off cancerous cells.

This is the first treatment that was recommended by my doctor. The plan was to do immunotherapy infusion treatments once every month for two years, until there were no more tumors or cancer cells in my body. My first round of immunotherapy went smoothly. I experienced very few side effects and things seemed to be going well. When it came time for my second round of immunotherapy, Texas was hit with a winter freeze that caused rolling power outages. This caused my treatment to be delayed by a week. I then underwent a series of scans and unfortunately, it appeared that the treatment was not working as my cancer had spread to my liver, pancreas, spine, breast, and lungs. However, the tricky thing about immunotherapy is that it often takes a while for it to work. Since my treatment was delayed by the winter storm and I had only completed two rounds of immunotherapy, my doctor suggested I stay on the current treatment plan for 6 more weeks and then assess the results. During this time, I was in bad shape. I had severe swelling in my stomach, left arm and sides. I also had difficulty walking because of severe back pain from a tumor on T8 of my spine. After consulting with my Doctor, she suggested that I get targeted radiation treatment on my spine and tumor under my arm.