New Mother Battles Back Against Aggressive Cancer
By Nancy Stringer | July 28, 2006
In July 2004, Karine, 37, was thrilled to find that she and her husband, Eric, were going to become parents for the first time. Then, just three months later, their world began to fall apart. During a routine visit, Karine’s gynecologist told her that her ovary was abnormally large and would need to be surgically removed. Surgery during pregnancy can be done, but presents an elevated risk to the developing fetus.
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| Katie Couric with cancer survivor Karine, Karine’s husband Eric and their 18-month-old son, Arthur. |
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The day after Thanksgiving, Cheryl Saenz, a gynecologic surgical oncologist with the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, safely removed Karine’s ovary. A biopsy showed the growth on her ovary was made up of colon cells, not ovarian cells.
Karine had colon cancer.
She needed to have surgery right away to remove the rapidly growing tumor in her colon, but it was going to be tricky because of her pregnancy. Under the skilled hands of gastrointestinal surgical oncologist Sonia Ramamoorthy, just one week after Karine’s first surgery, the tumor was removed from her colon with no harm to her developing baby. Because of her expanding abdomen, however, surgeons were not able to close the wound.
In early January 2005, Karine began chemotherapy, but it was not the full regimen. Many cancer drugs are harmful and even fatal to unborn babies and Karine was desperate to save her baby. So in her third trimester, she underwent a reduced regimen that was designed to buy time until the baby could be delivered safely.
After three treatments, the regimen was stopped to induce baby Arthur’s birth on February 9th, eight weeks premature.
An answer to prayer, Arthur was born healthy. But there was little time to celebrate their good fortune. Arthur was not even a week old when his mother started the full regimen of chemotherapy. Soon, Karine received yet another round of bad news: Her cancer was not responding to the first-line therapy; only about 4 percent of patients go on to respond to second-line therapy.
Then the bottom really fell out. In March, with Arthur less than two months old, Karine learned her cancer had spread to her liver, leaving her with an exceedingly poor prognosis.
That is when she met Dr. Tony Reid, director of the Cancer Center’s Gastrointestinal Malignancies Program, to explore her options. One of Dr. Reid’s special research interests is in trying to improve the percentage of patients who respond to second-line therapy by inserting new therapies between first- and second-line treatments.
“Karine’s cancer was particularly aggressive and she was running out of options,” Dr. Reid said. “I was deeply concerned about her chances if we moved directly to a second-line therapy. So we discussed two possibilities – gene therapy to make the liver more sensitive to second-line chemotherapy, or radioactive beads delivered into the liver tumor for a similar purpose but through an entirely different mechanism.”
Together they decided to move forward using radioactive microspheres delivered through the artery that carries the blood supply to the liver. Interventional radiologist Steven Rose performed the procedure.
“With each treatment, Karine’s tumor decreased in size and is now completely gone as far as we can tell,” Dr. Reid said. “This is a unique treatment sequence. Her response has been remarkable, and we’re writing a protocol to now bring it to other patients.”
Baby Arthur is now 18 months old, healthy and happy. Nothing makes Dr. Reid more pleased than to say, “So is his mother.”
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