My New Oncologist's Cutting-Edge Approach Is Saving My Life

“60 Minutes” ran a segment last night (you can find it online) about an oncologist and research scientist in LA – Dr. Patrick Soon-Shoing – who is championing a low-dose, multi-chemo approach to fighting cancer.  This is exactly what my own oncologist, Dr. Howard Bruckner, has been doing with tremendous success for years.  “60 Minutes” reported that Dr. Soon-Shoing (the inventor, by the way, of the chemo agent Abraxane) has also had tremendous success with this program and has poured a billion dollars of his own money (yes, he happens to be phenomenally wealthy) into conducting research on it as well as immuno therapy and other cutting edge treatments.  Moreover, his focus is on individualizing treatment by profiling the genetic make-up of individuals’ specific cancer type. 

Mainstream treatment still involves a mono-focus on the origin of one’s cancer (ovarian, colon, lung, etc.) and a cookie-cutter, everyone-gets-the-same-high-dose protocol  approach to fighting the disease.  And when it stops working, as it invariably does for many people, they send you home.  That is what happened to me.  After fighting ovarian cancer for almost seven years (with two 24-mo and 12-mo remissions, respectively), going to three different respected cancer treatment centers (Washington Hospital Center, Sloane-Kettering, and Johns Hopkins), and being treated with the standard high dose Carbo-Taxol, then Cisplatin-Taxol, and finally, Doxil-Carbo regimens, I was sent home this past June – by Hopkins – with the words, “There is nothing more we can do.”  I was appalled and disgusted.  I am 52 years old, entirely fit, and still full of fight and energy.  It seemed that someone on the hospital’s board simply decided  I no longer fit into their cost-benefit analysis for patient care.  (Individualizing treatment takes up a lot of expensive doctor time.)

Hopkins, it turns out, did me a favor.  Within two weeks I had found Dr. Howard Bruckner who has a practice in the Bronx, NY.  Dr. Bruckner wears two hats, that of a scientist and that of a caring, brilliant M.D.  He began his professional life conducting oncology research at the NIH.  He then moved on to practice, but became disillusioned by the bureaucracy, fear, and self-interest that prevents most oncologists at large medical institutions from thinking creatively and doing all that they know is best for their patients.  So, in his late sixties, when many accomplished M.D.s could start thinking of retirement, he began his own practice that offers exactly what the “60 Minutes” report yesterday described.  I have been in treatment with Dr. Bruckner for several months now and have met countless people in his infusion room who state that they too were given up on, that they too were basically sent home to die, and that Dr. Bruckner brought them from Stage 4 “no hope” to remission or getting there.  I happen to have an extremely rare cell type – mucinous adenocarcinoma which, in its morphology, is more like a gastrointestinal cancer than it is ovarian.  Dr. Bruckner suspected this, got it confirmed via a biopsy, had my tissue samples profiled, and has tailored my chemo to my cell type.  I have never received so much close attention and concern from a doctor in all of my many years.  And he and his wonderful partner – Dr. Azriel Hirschfeld (who is some decades younger) – are forever looking into the future on behalf of  their patients.  They do not relax their vigilance even when their patients go into remission.  Each time I went into remission at previous institutions, I was simply sent home and told to reappear in three months.  There was no maintenance therapy, no more frequent check-ups, nothing.  Drs. Bruckner and Hirschfeld develop plans for the “remission” stage.  They remain forever on guard  and want us, their patients, to eventually remain in remission indefinitely.  They never give up.

Dr. Bruckner’s low-dose, multi-chemo approach works immediately for many, many people no matter how sick they are when they arrive.  It makes sense – to slam the cancer from multiple angles simultaneously so that it does not have a chance to develop a resistance as it so often does when you hit it with just one or two agents.  However, Bruckner and Hirschfeld are also using immuno therapy to fight the disease – sometimes simultaneously with the chemo, more often after the chemo has already had a positive effect.  And perhaps most importantly, they really see each person as an individual with a unique health history, disease profile, and immune system.  They spend a lot of time getting to know their patients and tailoring their treatment program accordingly. If something they are doing does not seem to be working, they try something else.  They are as humble as they are brilliant.

 I live outside of Washington, DC, and it has involved a great upheaval for me to travel to NYC every two weeks for treatment.  But it has been worth it.  And I write this without any self-interest whatsoever.  I am actually feeling quite ill at the moment from infusions I received last week, but I wanted to get online and tell as many of you as possible about the “60 Minutes” segment and of my own doctor’s work should this information help anyone else.  Bruckner Oncology’s telephone number is  718-732-4050.  You can also call me if you have any questions.  Just send me a message, and I will send you my phone number.

Angela