{"id":8335,"date":"2019-03-07T16:17:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/blog\/2019\/03\/07\/the-miracle-continues\/"},"modified":"2019-03-07T16:17:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T16:17:05","slug":"the-miracle-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/blog\/2019\/03\/07\/the-miracle-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The miracle continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMarch 7, 2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\tLiving with Cancer Blog\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>By Roy Vinke<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since the start of my treatment with Keytruda in January 2018, my cancer continues to be in remission. It has not been a completely smooth ride along the way though. Complications from a stent surgery, which placed me in the hospital for six days, and various other minor issues relating to drug side effects and my stent have created some hurdles. However, Keytruda continues to do its amazing work, enabling my immune system to attack my pancreatic cancer. I am truly blessed and very thankful daily for this miracle.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/ab-test\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2023\/06\/roy-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"inline_728_https:\/\/wellspringalberta.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/roy-3.jpg\" width=\"413\" height=\"550\"><\/p>\n<p>With my renewed health, I have been spending some of my time advocating for other cancer patients. Specifically, I have been advocating for genomic profiling to be available to all cancer patients with solid tumours in order to determine best treatment options (i.e., targeted therapy).&nbsp;For me, it was the discovery of a mismatch repair deficiency (MSH6) that led to my successful treatment with Keytruda (an immunotherapy drug).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, genomic profiling was not offered to me in Alberta. I had to send my tumour tissue to a US-based company called Foundation Medicine. Furthermore, Keytruda is not yet approved for mismatch repair deficient tumours in Canada (although it is approved in the states and approved for lung, melanoma and hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma cancer in Canada). Therefore, the drug can only be prescribed off-label for this indication, which ends up being very costly to the patient. Therefore, I am also advocating for the approval of&nbsp; Keytruda (or similar immunotherapy) for mismatch repair deficient tumours in Canada, regardless of tumour type.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are, undoubtedly, many other patients across the country with solid tumours who would benefit from this targeted treatment, in particular colon and endometrial cancer patients. The problem is a lack of awareness about genomic profiling and lack of access to immunotherapy and other drugs for targeted treatment (precision medicine).<\/p>\n<p>As I continue on my journey with pancreatic cancer, I continue to learn about the disease and treatment options.&nbsp; Some of the most important lessons I have learned are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get second and third opinions;<\/li>\n<li>Have a strong advocacy team;<\/li>\n<li>Look to family and friends for support;<\/li>\n<li>Seek counseling to help you process your diagnosis;<\/li>\n<li>Obtain genomic profiling in the US if you can afford it\/tissue is available (but understand the odds are low and that if a targeted treatment is identified it may be hard to get access);<\/li>\n<li>If you cannot afford genomic profiling request microsatellite stability (MSI) tumour testing;<\/li>\n<li>If MSI testing is not possible, seek genetic testing for lynch syndrome as a last resort for mismatch repair deficient target treatment;<\/li>\n<li>Get on palliative care as soon as possible if your diagnosis is terminal;<\/li>\n<li>Maintain a positive attitude;<\/li>\n<li>Research your diagnosis and treatment options in peer reviewed scientific literature; and<\/li>\n<li>Above all never ever give up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the start of my treatment with Keytruda in January 2018, my cancer continues to be in remission. It has not been a completely smooth ride along the way though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-8335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-inside-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The miracle continues - Wellspring Alberta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wellspring.ca\/alberta\/blog\/2019\/03\/07\/the-miracle-continues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The miracle continues - Wellspring Alberta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since the start of my treatment with Keytruda in January 2018, my cancer continues to be in remission. 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