Woman given three years to live is now cancer free thanks to 'miracle' treatment
A woman who was given three years to live after a devastating diagnosis is now cancer free - thanks to a 'miracle' treatment.
Judy Perkins, 56, had her first brush with cancer in 2003 when it was discovered she had stage zero breast cancer and she had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
The treatment was successful and Judy, from Florida, believed that she was cancer free but ten years later, in 2013, she was told the devastating news that she had Stage IV breast cancer.
Judy was told her diagnosis was a death sentence and given just three years to live, but she turned to an experimental treatment at the National Institute of Health in 2015 and now she's cancer free.
Judy signed up for experimental treatment and it worked perfectly (Survivornet)What do you think about experimental treatment? Let us know in the comments...
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Judy, an engineer, said she was fully aware of how dire her situation was and her husband and their two sons, Chris and Charlie, prepared for the worst.
She spent two years undergoing chemotherapy to extend her life but the disease progressed and Judy developed a "bunch of tumours".
Judy pushed her doctor for a prognosis and he guessed that she had around three years left to live, as Judy said her "quality of life had deteriorated rapidly".
Then, in 2015, Judy signed up for a treatment where scientists harvested her immune cells and multiplied them in a lab, before injecting her with 80 billion of them.
She was also given an immunotherapy drug that aided Judy's system, and soon her condition started to improve.
Judy has remained cancer free since the treatment (Survivornet)In May, 2016, just five months after she started treatment, Judy had a scan that showed she was cancer free - and since then she's remained healthy.
"Things haven't really changed," she told SurvivorNet. "I'm continuing to go back for scans.
"They now have me on the annual plan, so I only have to go back once a year, and things there remain very uneventful, for which I am quite happy."
Speaking to The Telegraph, Judy said: "This treatment has been used for well over a decade now. Almost everyone who has had a complete response has remained cancer free.
"I'm not wasting time worrying about whether my cancer is coming back. I feel cured. I feel awesome."
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Speaking previously, Judy explained to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on ITV's This Morning that her diagnosis was a "death sentence".
She's been able to watch her sons grow up (Survivornet)She told the hosts about the Immunotherapy trial and met Stephanie Goff, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research.
Stephanie had been teaching a class about immunotherapy for Project Lead, a group that was attempting to educate about breast cancer.
After she mentioned that she was conducting a clinical trial, Stephanie later told Judy that she would be a good candidate and had her enrolled.
Judy then began the treatment in August 2013 and started treatment the following month.
Judy still leads an active lifestyle and enjoys backpacking and skiing (Survivornet)"I could feel that tumour was shrinking so I knew that the treatment was working," she said. "The tumours had shrunk by 60 per cent."
This Morning's Dr Zoe explained that the treatment involved using your own immune system to combat the cancer. The trial involved injecting Judy with billions of white blood cells.
Asked how she felt now she was cancer-free, she said: "It's been a gradual process, I've just recently added more bucket list items to my plate... but I would caution that while this treatment has been magical for me it hasn't been magical for others."
Now, a decade after her treatment, Judy is still healthy and has watched her sons grow up.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK and around 55,000 women, and 370 men, are diagnosed each year.
About one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and there's a good chance of recovery if it's detected at an early stage.
Most women diagnosed with breast cancer are over the age of 50, but younger women can also get breast cancer, and in rare cases, men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Symptoms include a change in the size or shape of one or both breasts, lumps or swelling in the armpits, and dimpling of the skin.
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