Tina Willits, diagnosed with aggressive HER2 positive breast cancer and given two years to live, turned to immunotherapy and is now cancer-free. She shares her story and the hope that it brings to others battling the disease.
Less than three years ago, Tina Willits, now 53, thought she had just two years to live. Today, she is cancer-free — and she wants the world to know about the treatment that saved her. The Florida mother and grandmother first felt a lump in late 2021, just months after a normal mammogram.
still remember the doctor coming in and telling us that it was in my lymph nodes, ribs, spine, sternum and bones,' Willits told Fox News Digital during an on-camera interview. Willits was told that she had golf ball-sized tumors and that the disease was too advanced for a mastectomy. She was placed on end-of-care chemotherapy and told to 'enjoy the time you have left.
Today, Willits said, she is stable and healthy. 'I exercise every day. I'm a part of my family’s life every day. Cancer, we feel, is completely behind us — and that was almost an impossible mission,' she said. 'People ask me all the time, you know, how did you cure your cancer? And I say, ‘well, God led me to Dr. Williams.’' Williams believes that immunotherapy is the future of cancer treatments.
As oncologists, we don’t want to expose a patient to a medication that can increase the risk of side effects without a clinical benefit.' In 'properly selected' patients, however, Slomovitz believes immunotherapy can prolong both the time to cancer recurrence and overall survival rates. 'I’m excited to watch as the field of immuno-oncology continues to evolve.
The reality is there are women out there who don't know it exists,' she said. 'And if we can get the word out, I can't even tell you how many hundreds of women we could potentially save.' 'I cannot even imagine if I had stayed the course of traditional treatment and just tried to stop the progression,' she said. 'I mean, it's out of my body. It's gone. Life is back to normal again. And I am so grateful.
BREAST CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY CANCER TREATMENT HER2 POSITIVE HOPE
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