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Arizona woman outlives cancer prognosis
A Valley mom was given a terminal breast cancer diagnosis last November, and through technological advances at a personalized oncology center right here in Arizona, she nears the one-year mark with no signs of disease. FOX 10's Kenzie Beach has the details.
PHOENIX - A Valley mom was given a terminal breast cancer diagnosis last November, and through technological advances at a personalized oncology center right here in Arizona, she nears the one-year mark with no signs of disease.
After losing her brother to cancer, Tammy Murrow didn’t let a stage 4 diagnosis stop her from looking for answers. It came at a heavy cost as this type of targeted chemotherapy isn't covered by insurance.
"I would at least see my kids married and grandkids, and kind of see that part of their life, and this realization that that might not be a reality," she recalled thinking when she was diagnosed.
A mother of two sons, the 55-year-old remembers the moment she heard she had advanced stage 4 breast cancer.
"I wasn’t going to survive, but maybe a month or two," Murrow said.
With the odds stacked against her, Murrow started researching alternative treatment options.
"Many times cancer patients are feeling that they are killing the cancer, but they’re killing themselves just as fast," Dr. John Oertle of the Envita Medical Center said. "You want to be able to build the body just as much as you want to be able to kill the cancer."
Murrow hit the two-month mark that she was given to live. Instead, she was fighting and spending 30 hours a week at Envita.
"It was absolutely a turning point, I will say, that saved my life," she said.
Tammy Murrow
It’s genetically targeted fractionated chemotherapy. They test the biomarkers of the cancer cells for each individual patient.
They use a catheter the width of a hair that travels through the bloodstream and the chemo goes directly into the tumor.
Murrow was treated for 22 weeks.
"Target the chemotherapy and make it fractionated, so it was very small, and I could tolerate it and still work full-time," she said.
It comes at a heavy cost as many insurance companies don’t cover this type of treatment.
"There is still a huge debt that needs to be covered, but I would just say, don’t let that be a deterrent," she said.
Dr. Oertle is working to increase access but says insurance companies deny specialized cancer tests and off-label targeted medications.
"For cash-pay patients, even though we are half the cost of conventional oncology treatments, it still is rather burdensome for patients to pay cash for these services," he said.
For Murrow, the cost wasn’t worth her life.
"You know, cancer hides, and it’s sneaky, so it got found out," Murrow said.
Murrow is not out of the woods yet. She says she’s taking about 10 pills a day to keep the cancer away and support her immune system.
She's looking forward to spending the holidays with her family this year – something she didn't think she'd be around for.