Rohini, a 49- year old housewife, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (Leiomyosarcoma) in March 2016, after she noticed pain in legs along with swelling, that led to difficulty in walking. Unfortunately, there are not many standard treatment options for Leiomyosarcoma. Hence despite three lines of chemotherapy, which also had side-effects such as toxicity, the disease progressed to her liver and forearm.
Surgery and radiotherapy were ruled out due to the location of the cancer. Current medical knowledge and guidelines failed to provide any insight on how this cancer could be cured. Under these circumstances Rohini was advised to start palliative treatment, which would do little to rid the cancer or to prevent it from spreading. While the patient was otherwise healthy, her disease appeared to be incurable.
DCGL carried out comprehensive genetic and cellular testing of the patient’s tumor and blood samples and selected a customized treatment for this patient.
Within 30 days of receiving DCGL-recommended treatment, this ‘incurable’ form of cancer had stopped progressing. Within 90 days of same treatment, the cancer had also decreased in size.
