Hope 4 Cancer

My name is Samantha. I am a 44-year-old, single parent, essentially, of three kids, aged 16, 14, and 6. We need your help!

My friends, family, and even my church family would tell you that asking for help is WAY outside my comfort zone. But my life depends on it, and the life as my children know it also. 

I am on my second cancer journey. 

At the beginning of August 2021, I began treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma. The "standard treatment of care," included four cycles of four chemotherapy drugs, ABVD, every two weeks, with my last cycle in September of that year.  While my scan was showing no sign of disease, my oncologist recommended I endure a full second round of 4 treatments, followed by radiation. However, due to shortness of breath, an investigation into my heart and lungs put that on hold. I was very active before treatment, running 5ks and walking 4-6 miles daily, yet I could no longer walk upstairs without feeling winded.

Adriamycin, also known as Doxorubicin, is considered a cardiotoxic drug, "Symptoms include signs or symptoms of heart failure, including a reduced ability of the left side of the heart to pump (called LVEF or left ventricular ejection fraction), a fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, fluid on the lungs, as well as other related symptoms." Eighteen days after my last dose of Adriamycin, my echocardiogram findings read, "Compared to the prior echocardiogram of 07/26/2021, (pre-treatment exam) there is absolute decline of LVEF (of 20%), and relative worsening of GLS score by 29%. 

The damage didn't stop there. In every scan before treatment, my lungs were "clear." In May 2022, my first follow-up CT scan, atelectasis in my right lung was reported. In September the radiologist noted fibrosis in the mid-right lung. Pfizer labels Bleomycin this way, "Pulmonary fibrosis is the most severe toxicity associated with Bleomycin for injection." The Cleveland Clinic says, "Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive disease (gets worse over time). There is no cure, and it eventually leads to death." 

I also experienced significant hair loss, (I had to buzz it), hearing loss, vision loss, as well as, memory loss. 

Little did I know the worst was yet to come. 

Just over one year after my last chemo, I felt a small hard mass at the base of my right breast. I remember thinking that it didn't quite feel like the mass I found in my neck with Lymphoma, so perhaps it was just a cyst. I had a CT scheduled for a month or so later, so I made the assumption, that if it were cancerous the scan would pick it up. 

No evidence of disease, other than in the lungs. 

Another year passes, and I feel a second mass on the right side of the same breast. An ultrasound, thermogram, and eventually an MRI all reveal abnormalities indicative of malignant "multicentric" breast disease. Multicentric means that I was showing two primary tumors in different quadrants of my breast. A biopsy would then indicate I have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, with possible lymph node involvement. I was graded as nuclear grade 3, "or high grade, referring to cancer that is growing faster than grade 1 and grade 2, and which is more likely to spread.", according to Breast Cancer. org. In addition, I am ER and PR negative, (not hormonally fueled), and HER2 positive. The American Cancer Society describes HER2+ as "a protein that helps breast cancer cells grow quickly." My stage is IIB. 

With aggressive cancer, comes aggressive treatment options. It is recommended that I undergo 6 cycles of chemotherapy and anti-HER2 therapies. TCHP is given every 21 days. Next, I would have a mastectomy, followed by radiation, as well as the continuance of the two anti-HER2 injections, (Taxotere and Pertuzumab), for a total of one year. 

"COMMON side effects as we discussed to include GI side effects as nausea, vomiting or diarrhea/mucositis, neuropathy, rash, skin/nail changes, and deterioration of heart function, however later is reversible. Will need to do echocardiogram every three months while you are on treatment.", reads my after-visit summary. 

During the visit, I was warned that my white blood cell count could drop dramatically, and I may need to undergo blood transfusions and hospitalizations. And all of this for a chance of 50-55 percent complete resolution.  

My therapy can hospitalize me! Tell that to a single mother of three kids. 

I have been down this road before. I am free of Hodgkin Lymphoma. Yes. Yet, in her wake, I have a significant loss in memory, sight, and hearing. I have fibrosis in my lungs. I have a weakened and vulnerable heart. And I have secondary cancer. 

An article published by the Journal of Clinical Oncology states, "Exposure to Doxorubicin during treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma has been shown to increase the subsequent risk of breast cancer in women, regardless of age at exposure and use of radiotherapy."

Further, it states, "Eradication of disease is, of course, highly desirable but this does not come without the personal costs to future health seen in an increased risk of second cancers, cardiovascular disease, infertility...Although cure is the undisputed destination in curable cancers, the route to cure is important and means there is an imperative to deploy available treatments in the most effective and least damaging way..."

I followed the last recommended standard of treatment, and I am not sure it was worth trading one cancer for another, that this time I have to fight with a damaged and weaker vessel. Does the risk outweigh the benefit? 

What if there were another way? A safer way? 

Dr. Jiminez, M.D., N.D., has created a healing environment at Hope 4 Cancer, in Mexico, where patients are treated with "non-toxic and integrative strategies to treat cancer." With more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Jiminez has developed the "7 Key Principles of Cancer Therapy" and applied them alongside these non-toxic treatments with "several biological immunotherapies" to promote healing. With success. 

I strongly believe that success is because Dr. Jiminez treats the ENTIRE individual. He does not only target the cancer cells, he learns about, and then tailors a specific individual strategy to target the "biological terrain that causes and feeds its growth." He looks for the root, and nourishes it, strengthening the human body as a whole while weakening the cancer cells only. No toxicity or life-altering side effects. 

While some US insurance companies will reimburse Hope 4 Cancer patients (mine will not), the upfront cost is still unavoidable. That's where I need your help. And while the ask seems large, compared to the cost of US treatment, it's pretty cheap, covering significantly more testing, doctors, and therapies. I am getting more, for less.

This is my hope. 

Will you help me get there?