Doctor defies terminal cancer diagnosis with breakthrough therapy
Dr Tina Willits was told she had just 24 months to live after being diagnosed with breast cancer, but against all odds she is now in remission.
The mother-of-five's disease was "everywhere" with three golf-ball sized tumors in her breast and cancerous masses in her ribs, spine, lymph nodes and legs.
"When my cancer was detected, it was pretty past a stage four diagnosis and I was too far gone for a mastectomy," she told the Daily Mail.
She was placed on end-of-care chemotherapy and was told to "enjoy the time you have left".
That was nearly three years ago. Now, the 53-year-old US mum is in remission thanks to a breakthrough cancer therapy that uses cold gases and the body's own cells to freeze and fight tumors.
"I was devastated, but I was also like no, I was not ok with that diagnosis. I felt I had to do something," she recalled.
"I was just really determined that I did not want to live my life with this cancer, even if they could stop it progressing, I didn't want that, I just wanted it gone."
Dr Willits' cancer was HER2 positive, which account for about 20 percent of all diagnoses, and she had no family history of the disease.
She underwent four rounds of chemotherapy before she sought alternative treatment at the Williams Cancer Institute.
The institute sent her a list of supplements to begin taking and advised her to avoid sugar, which some researchers believe can help reduce inflammation and slow down the growth of cancer cells.
She then underwent a treatment regimen that is not yet fully approved in the US, with cryoablation as the first step.
Cryoablation is the process where doctors insert a small metal probe through the skin and into the tumor, extremely cold gasses are then released directly into the mass to kill its cells.
In the second phase of her treatment, she received immunotherapy, where eight drugs were administered directly into her tumor, which doctors say can prompt the immune system to recognise cancer cells as a threat and trigger an immune response.
Dr Willits told the Dailymail that she was shocked when she got the results from her six-week scan after the treatment.
"There were none, no tumors. They were just completely gone," she said.
"All the metastasis (cancerous growths outside the breast) had completely healed, and the cancer in my lymph nodes was no longer there."
After the treatment she had another four rounds of chemotherapy, and still undergoes PET scans every six months.
So far the cancer has not been detected in her body since the treatment, and will need to wait for five years of clear results before she can be declared cancer free.
Dr Williams, the founder of the institute, developed the treatment regimen over several years, and believes it could offer a better way to treat cancer.
He is currently running a trial of the treatment in hard-to-treat prostate cancer patients, although he did not reveal how long the study had been going on for or how many rounds of treatment the patients had received.
Since going into remission Dr Willits has travelled to Honduras and Colorado, tried mountain biking and is training for a 5k marathon for breast cancer awareness.
"I wouldn't appreciate life like this if I had not gone through the cancer," she said.
"No one on their deathbed says I wish I had worked more or got that job, you all say I wish I had spent more time with my parents and kids or gone to that place I had always wanted to."
Images: DailyMail