Only one yr earlier, Katie had develop into a cancer survivor after a tumour that had solely a two % probability of metastasising was faraway from her eye.

"But somebody has to be the two percent," mentioned Katie writing for HuffPost. The most cancers unfold to her liver, the place medics recognized 12 cancerous lesions.

"I needed to get my affairs in order," Katie mentioned. "My oncologist said I had one FDA-approved treatment option, and I trusted her."

Her personal father, being a health care provider of inner medication, knew that earlier than a drug turns into FDA-approved, it goes via a scientific trial course of.

"For someone like me with an advanced, rare disease, clinical trials offered a better shot at buying more time, which is really all we’re hoping to do," Katie shared.

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Katie's father secured her an appointment that December at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City.

"And so began my crash course in clinical trials," Katie revealed. "Had I started on the first treatment option provided by the oncologist who diagnosed me... I would not have been eligible for the clinical trial he was running."

Katie added: "I have heard of other patients who frantically start chemotherapy upon a terminal diagnosis, only to find that made them ineligible for potentially life-saving clinical trials.

"When you’re given an expiration date, it’s exhausting to take a pause on attacking the factor that's attacking you.

"But this approach can mean having a matter of months versus years (or life and death)."

By May 2020, additional tumour growths noticed Katie have interaction in her fourth scientific trial at UPMC-Pittsburgh.

"My life started to feel like a game of whack-a-mole," Katie confessed. "But I was so grateful."

Katie defined: "Through all the flying back and forth, different doctors and side effects, I was buying time I wouldn’t have had if I’d listened to my first oncologist.

"On Sept 17, 2021, almost seven years after I’d been given 16 months to stay, I awoke from surgical procedure to listen to the phrases we as soon as thought unimaginable: 'We bought all of it.'"

Katie emphasised: "Clinical trials are usually not going to be the reply for each analysis, however they should be a consideration, not an afterthought.

"If you or a loved one gets diagnosed with cancer, talk to your doctor about what clinical trials are available.

"This would possibly require getting a second opinion — which ideally is finished previous to beginning any remedy."

Follow Katie’s story of survival on Instagram/Twitter @ceortman.