Brenda’s Immunotherapy Story

I lived in Virginia Beach at the time with my husband. We got married in 1983. Then in 1986, I noticed a small lump just on my right side, and went in to have it biopsied. I found out it was triple-negative breast cancer. I was 22.

It was a very different time. The doctor told my husband—not me—that it was a very aggressive cancer, and to seek treatment. So we moved back to Erie, PA, to be with the family. I had a radical lumpectomy and radiation. I was cancer-free for almost seven years. Then we learned it came back again in the same area. After that, I had chemotherapy.

For about five years, from 2007-2012, I was doing chemotherapy treatments and clinical trials at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, and it just wasn’t curing it. So my oncologist, Dr. Antonios Christou, recommended that I go to a bigger facility. That’s what brought me to Johns Hopkins Hospital, and to Dr. Leisha Emens.

I started in 2013. Dr. Emens explained that it helps your T cells to fight off cancer. I really had no other choices available, so I told her that I would try it. They didn’t know what the side effects would be, so I had to sign consent forms—which was pretty scary—to explain any of the side effects that could happen. But after I received two doses, there was a 70 percent decrease in tumors shown on my first scan. 

I said, “Oh my gosh. Can you repeat that to me? I just won the lottery [laughs].” It’s like the best gift I ever had. Then they kept me on that for 16 cycles and everything was stable.

I was off it for almost a year. And then the cancer came back. There was another lymph node on the left side that showed cancer. So I was able to get back on the trial, and I started back on the drug in February of 2015.

They allowed you to go back on the trial even though the cancer had progressed. There was a certain time period in between that qualified me to get back on the trial. And so I started back up again. It’s almost 63 percent shrinkage in lymph nodes and tumors. It shows that the immunotherapy works.

With chemotherapy, you lose your hair, of course. I didn’t feel that great. I had multiple chemotherapy treatments, because it just kept coming back. No one really ever told us how aggressive triple-negative breast cancer is—that chemotherapy really does not keep it at bay for long and it’s likely to pop up again.

Immunotherapy is like 90 percent better than chemotherapy. You don’t lose your hair. I felt like I have more energy when I’m on it. And there really isn’t much nausea at all. Slight fatigue, but not too much. The only side effect I did have from the trial was a thyroid issue. And they took care of that with Synthroid, which I’m on now. I literally go in and have a thirty-minute treatment when I go to Johns Hopkins and then I’m done.

It’s awesome to know that you’ve been a part of science in this way. To realize that maybe in the future, this is what they’ll do to cure cancer, without having all the side effects of chemotherapy, and I’ve been a part of that…it’s just amazing.

I would absolutely say, if that’s the only chance that you have for survival, do it. I mean, look what happened to me. I have people call me and want to talk to me, who have triple-negative breast cancer. And I tell them, if you can, get into a trial with this immunotherapy drug, because I’ve had such good results with it.

And also to not give up. I have a big plaque that I got in Baltimore. It’s stained glass and has the word “hope” spelled out, where the “e” is a pink ribbon. I just thought it was so fitting when I saw it in the gallery. Because I’ve always said that it’s so important to have hope.