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Title of the document I didn’t know anything about cancer before my diagnosis but now I know a great deal. Everyone’s cancer is different, and joining a clinical trial based on my HER2 biomarker was the best course of treatment for mine.

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Bruce Shipman

Diagnosis:

Stage IV Gastroesophageal
adenocarcinoma

Biomarker:

HER2
In 2021, I was in the midst of a cross-country move when I was diagnosed with Stage IV gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. Both the cancer and its severity came as a shock, and I became extremely worried when my oncologist said she was not hopeful about the diagnosis. She recommended that I contact a researcher at MD Anderson who was running a clinical trial, and within three weeks I entered the path I continue on today–taking an experimental drug targeted to cancers like mine that are positive for the HER2 biomarker.

Diagnosis and Early Treatment

I was 81 years old when I was diagnosed, literally in the middle of a life-changing move from Carmel, California to Fredericksburg, Texas. I have always been very healthy, so I sought medical care when I started having problems swallowing, and developing mucus after I ate. People my age sometimes develop treatable esophagus problems, so I was not overly-concerned going into a throat scope, but that exploration revealed cancer. It had metastasized to nodules close to my esophagus, but not to my lungs, stomach or any other vital organs. Doctors said they thought the condition had been progressing for four or five years. I still have a tumor in my throat that cannot be removed, but it is not cancerous and is now considered scar tissue.

The oncologist near my new home in Texas did not feel optimistic about standard treatment options. However, she had conducted several tests on my cancer, and transmitted a PET scan to MD Anderson Cancer Center that showed I was positive for the HER2 biomarker. That status qualified me for a clinical trial testing a promising drug called ZW25. At first, my appointment was scheduled for three weeks later, but waiting that long made me very nervous, and ultimately the medical team got me in the same week.

I had six months of chemotherapy starting in September 2021, and have been on ZW25 ever since. I go to Houston every two weeks, and the protocol includes giving blood, seeing the doctor and getting the ZW25 infusion. It takes about a day to do the whole thing. Quarterly, I do an echocardiogram and CAT scan and there has been no detection of cancer.

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Doctors said they thought the condition had been progressing for four or five years.

Bruce Shipman

The Case for Biomarker Testing

If I hadn’t tested positive for the HER2 biomarker, I would not have had any good treatment options. The chemotherapy I did at the beginning of the trial was tough, but the ZW25 regimen I’m on now has less impact on my quality of life, and I now know what to expect in the days following treatment. The first night following treatment, I’ll hardly get any sleep and my energy is low for a day or two afterwards. By the third or fourth day, I’m totally myself. I’ve recovered from weight loss that occurred during chemo, and I can now do the same exercises and live as normally as I did before.
For anyone newly diagnosed with gastric-related cancer, I would recommend getting tested for biomarkers and to consider entering a clinical trial. I realize that I’m a guinea pig and that’s what these trials are all about, but when it comes to life and death you have to make these decisions and I feel like this path was the proper way to go about treating my cancer. In terms of earlier detection, I tell all of my friends to do an endoscopy at the same time they get their colonoscopy, because this disease is underdiagnosed.

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