My Wife's Miraculous Cancer Remission Story

In October 2014, I was officially diagnosed with advanced endometrial cancer (uterine cancer), Stage 3b, Grade 3 (fast growing and likely to recur).  I had a successful total hysterectomy in November 2014 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. My surgeon thought she got all the cancer, but that I would still need chemotherapy and radiation treatment. My prognosis was a 50% chance of being alive in five years.

Two months later, right before I was to begin chemotherapy, a CT scan showed my cancer had metastasized to my liver, spleen and vaginal cuff/outer rectum (a frequent location for metastasis). I also had nodules on my lungs, spleen and outer colon (34 centimeters of new tumors that were measurable).  The radiologist who performed the liver biopsy told my husband I probably had four to six months to live. I guess he believed I would be filled with cancer by then. I now had about a fifteen percent chance of being alive in five years. But the odds didn’t matter to me. I decided I was going to live. I was too young to die.

Since I planned to survive, I started to do extensive research on my cancer and cancer in general and learned that a drug called metformin, the most popular anti-diabetes drug in the world, has many anti- cancer properties. Plus, it would treat my pre-diabetes, insulin resistance and high levels of insulin. So I entered a trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering that added metformin or a placebo to the Taxol/Carboplatin chemotherapy I was going to receive as part of my treatment. Radiation treatment was cancelled when my cancer metastasized.

After one month in the trial and two chemotherapy infusions, I met with a well-known integrative oncologist in New York City who my own gynecological oncologist/surgeon recommended. Integrative oncology is a combination of standard cancer treatment with complementary treatment. He immediately put me on metformin because I was insulin resistant (which is a major driver of endometrial cancer) and I removed myself from the trial. I later learned that metformin also targets two pathways frequently mutated in many cancers, and both my pathways were mutated. He also started me on a regimen of thirty-four supplements. I personally had already started to radically change my diet. I was a sugar junkie and ate a lot of high fat food. Plus I was overweight and needed to lose about thirty pounds (another risk for endometrial cancer).

After my third chemotherapy infusion and one month on metformin, another CT scan showed that 88% of all my tumors were gone. I was down to four centimeters.  It was unbelievable. Sloan told me they only measured 20% shrinkage, which tells me they normally don’t see that amount of shrinkage with chemotherapy alone. I knew the metformin had shut down the food supply of glucose and insulin, key drivers of cancer. Glucose has been known to fuel cancer since the 1930s. Look up Otto Warburg.

I continued with my three additional chemotherapy infusions (for a total of six). After my final infusion, another CT scan revealed that I still had two centimeters remaining, one centimeter on my spleen and one centimeter on my vaginal cuff/outer rectum. I refused additional chemotherapy. My integrative oncologist raised my metformin dose though it was still not as high as the dose in the trial.  He also added another nine supplements to my regimen.

Two months later, in August 2015, a PET/CT scan showed I was totally cancer free, NED (no evidence of disease), seven months after being told I probably had four to six months to live. Instead of dying, I went into complete remission and have remained in complete remission.  I beat a death sentence. Since the diagnosis for women with metastatic endometrial cancer is dire, with an average lifespan of twelve months, I consider what happened to me a miracle. But if it can happen for me, it should be able to happen for others. I just passed my three-year anniversary and still remain totally cancer-free.

If you have advanced or metastatic cancer, you have to do much more than just standard cancer treatments if you want to survive and hope to attain remission. I follow a comprehensive cancer treatment plan that addresses all my health and lifestyle issues plus supports my immune system, liver and mitochondrial function and targets inflammation. I also lost forty pounds and totally changed my diet. After all, it is primarily our diet and lifestyle that leads to the conditions that lead to cancer. Inherited gene mutations only represent 5-10% of all cancers. If you don’t determine the root causes of your cancer and address them, cancer can always return, if your body’s environment is conducive for it to grow. If your body isn’t functioning properly, you are on the road to disease, including cancer. Healing your cancer is about getting your body back in balance.

My complete remission came about through the use of integrative oncology, using both standard cancer treatments and complementary treatments. That is what comprehensive cancer treatment is all about.

It is not just about cancer drugs. 

You will probably find that most of what you need to do has little to do with standard cancer treatment. You need to heal your body, not just worry about the tumor. The tumor is a symptom of many other underlying health issues. You have to address the root causes of your cancer or new tumors can keep forming.

I believe I am here for a reason and that is to assist others who have advanced or metastatic cancer better understand how to heal their own cancer. If only I knew then what I know now. I have been researching cancer for over three years and hope to share all I have learned since I began my journey so others can make smarter treatment decisions and be better prepared if they receive a cancer diagnosis. Hopefully, I can assist other cancer patients who want to better understand their own diagnosis, options for treatment and can assist patients in developing their own comprehensive cancer treatment plan. 

If you would like speak with someone who survived a cancer death sentence, I would be happy to discuss your situation with you. Even if you don’t have uterine cancer, cancer is cancer. You can contact me through my husband’s LinkedIn page. Who better to speak with than a cancer patient who not only survived a cancer death sentence, but remains totally cancer free. If you are a cancer patient who is being told by your oncologist that there is nothing else they can do for you or the cancer drugs aren’t working, know that there is a lot you can do to heal your cancer today. But often you are not being told about all the options you do have. Options in addition to cancer drugs, common sense options.

I have written a book that documents my cancer journey and all that I have learned. The next step is to work with a literary agent to get my book published.