LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An Indiana woman says a clinical trial in Kentucky gave her her life back in her fight against cancer.
Lana Boes is a cancer survivor. Born in Rhode Island, she grew up in the Navy and moved around a lot. Her family settled in southern Indiana when she was a teen. She’s married and has a step-daughter.
Boes lost her mother to cancer decades ago and battled cervical cancer herself in 2008. Years later, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. According to her doctor, she went through chemotherapy and had surgery. But the cancer was relentless and kept coming back.
Boes persevered through treatments. “I was so sick. I was just exhausted. I was 100 pounds. I was just done. I didn’t want to die, but I had accepted it,” Boes explained.
A clinical trial of Keytruda, what was a new type of treatment at the time called immunotherapy, became available at UofL Health at just the right time for Boes. It was open at the Brown Cancer Center in downtown Louisville.
There were hundreds of patients on the trial across many cancer centers. Boes enrolled and noticed improvements almost immediately.
“I went from not having any hope or little hope or thinking that they’re gonna learn something from me from this trial, to the trial saving my life. It’s so hard to comprehend that it gave me my life back. I wasn’t sick any longer,” she shared.
“I think it’s really a testament to Lana and all those other patients who participate in trials like this, to say ‘Yeah, I’m gonna take a little bit of a step into the unknown and take a little bit of a risk,’ and gosh the benefits can be just huge. It’s been really exciting for sure,” said Dr. Rebecca Redman, the deputy director of clinical research at UofL Health’s Brown Cancer Center, said.
Redman, who has known Boes for years, says they saw other stories of success in the clinical trials.
“Immunotherapy and Keytruda, it’s changing lives. It’s literally curing people whose cancers were no longer or were previously not thought to be curable,” said Redman.
In June, Boes and her husband celebrated her fifth anniversary of completing the trials. They went on an 18-day European vacation, including Italy and France.
“Surreal,” Boes said of the experience. “I’m 52. My mom was 52 when she passed away. I never thought I’d hit 50. To be celebrating a five-year anniversary of completing a clinical trial that saved my life, that gave me my life back. I don’t even know how to put that into words honestly. It was such an amazing experience.”
Now she’s going to keep doing life cancer free.