May 8, 2023
First I would like to thank again all who supported my campaign. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
As to my battle, after 6 months of immuno therapy, this treatment flared up my psoriasis in multiple places, but also caused psoriatic arthritis in some joints. Therefore, the doctors and I decided to get back to chemo therapy, just for this one I will need a port in my chest with one ingredient infusing for 48 hours every two weeks.
Other than that, my situation has been fairly stable in terms of tumors. It’s the treatments that wipe me out.
October 18, 2022
Hi Everyone.
First of all, thank you again for the generous donations. They are a great help at this time. As to updates on my condition, well, last scan a couple of weeks ago was good. The condition has been declared as "stable" with some nodes gone, tumor shrinkage and necrosis, which is good news.
As to treatment, due to good results so far in the scans, the docs put me on immune-therapy, while taking a break from chemo after 16 rounds. Taking a break from checmo is great, and I am starting to see my stamina and energy starting to come back although immuno makes me sleepy tired and I need more hours of sleep. Let's see what the next scan shows.
Thank you again
Dror
August 15, 2022
Hi Everyone.
Thank you again for the love and support. I have another update:
Last week, I met with the oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He compared the CAT scan from a year ago with the latest scan and said he estimates there has been a reduction in active cancer cells by as much as up to 20%!!!
He said not to look at shrinkage of tumor nodes, but at the necrosis and calcification for dying notes.
Considering for my type of cancer, survival rate for symptomatic patients is 35% for first year, I am grateful and and fortunate for the latest findings.
Thank you everyone for the help, love and support. I hope to have more good updates towards the end of the year when they evaluate the immunotherapy treatment.
Dror Shalita
August 2, 2022
Just a couple of quick updates on my end:
Last CAT scan results indicated my condition as stable with some minor necrosis in some of the nodes. I guess as long as there is no new growth of tumors, the news can be classified as good news.
The other update is that in addition to this round of chemo, I was put on recently FDA approved immuno-therapy, which is supposed to unmask the tumors from the body's immune system, so the body can attack the tumors. It is still a new treatment, so let's hope it will work for me.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their generous donations.
Dror
May 7, 2022
Thank you to all we know and all we don’t know for your generosity.
We will continue the fight
SHALITA STRONG
May 4, 2022
First of all, I would like to thank my sister Daph, and my brother in law Kevin who came up with the idea and took the initiative for this campaign. I would like to take this opportunity also to thank everyone who contributed to this campaign, and all who expressed their support.
Just to give everyone a quick update: my cancer was discovered in September 2021 totally by chance while getting the CAT scan results for a 1.4cm (5/8") kidney stone which was found stuck close to the bladder -- the radiology tech started the scan a little higher on the abdomen so the far corner of the liver got into the scan, showing a mass the size of a grape on the corner of the liver, along with a few floating pea size nodes which are not attached to any internal organ. I had the kidney stone removed, and 15 hours later, a liver biopsy which confirmed this is cancer.
I suppose I am the only person you you would encounter who was very happy to have a kidney stone as the cancer was detected early thanks to the kidney stone. Due to early detection, all my organs still function at 100%, including my liver. Thankfully, and luckily, it was detected early on as once a patient becomes symptomatic with this cancer, the patient is pretty much handed a death sentence with only 35% survival rate for the first year, and 2% survival rate for 5 years (with liver transplants). I suppose a gram of luck is better than a ton of brains applies here, big time.
For the past 7 months I have been receiving an aggressive chemo therapy regiment which also causes physical and mental fatigue, making it harder to participate in physical and thinking activities. However, in the last 3 CAT scans I had, my condition was declared by the doctors as "stable" with minor shrinkage and necrosis in all nodes. Let's hope this trend continues and I can function normally again soon.
While nobody is ever prepared to receive the bad news s/he has cancer, I can not stress enough the difference in treatment and outcome brought by early detection of cancer. Living a "healthy" lifestyle (eating healthy, exercising etc) didn't prevent cancer in my case, but early detection will help me get through with this.
I will post more updates as they become available.
Thank you everyone!!!
