Heart of a Warrior: Jennifer’s Triumphant Fight Against Cancer

Jennifer’s story is a testament to strength and resilience. Faced with limited treatment options, she found hope in a life-saving clinical trial of botensilimab, a groundbreaking drug developed by Agenus Inc. Watch her inspiring journey and learn how innovative therapies are changing lives.

My name is Jennifer. I am from Uxbridge, Massachusetts. I am a mom of two boys.

Before I became a mom, I was a commercial insurance broker, but once I had my kids, I became a stay-at-home mom. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I loved to run long distance, and I have actually run the Boston Marathon. I ran tons of half marathons, and then we topped it off with running an ultra marathon in 2013.

And I love to climb mountains. I love to go hiking with my friends. And then I just love to be with my kids.

We love to camp. So it was in 2016, I put off getting a colonoscopy, which was a big mistake. I thought I’m in good shape.

I take care of myself. We had a family history, but the stigma of getting the colonoscopy kept me away from getting the colonoscopy. And so finally, I went and had my colonoscopy, and that was when they found the mass in my colon.

You know, when you are a little bit athletic, you can push pain away. So I probably had several little hints that something was going on, but I ignored them. I was in the recovery area, and there were several people in the recovery area.

I’m assuming a lot of them from having their colonoscopies as well. And I could hear the nurses going through each bay and saying, okay, you did great. You can gather your things, and we’ll take you out.

And they went down like one by one by one, and they came into my room and said, the doctor will be in to speak with you. And my husband looked at me, and he said, huh, that’s interesting. And I was like, yeah.

And I didn’t think too, too much of it. And then the doctor came in, and he stood by the side of the bed, and he said, and he found the mass. And I think I went numb, and it felt like a bubble came over my life.

I felt it just was, it was like the world twisted out from underneath me, and I was in a free fall. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I was going to hear those words. But then immediately after, I was like, of course they found the mass.

I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. I didn’t get my colonoscopy. My father died of colon cancer, right?

And then I thought, how could I, how could I let this happen? The test, the colonoscopy is probably the easiest test in the world to do. And I could have avoided the last eight years by having a colonoscopy when my doctor first started telling me to have one.

You know, they find the polyp, they take the polyp, you come back in three years, and the stigma would have been off the test for me. But I pushed it off until it was too late. So now I try, you know, my goal is to stay here for as long as I can to enjoy my kids.

So it was a bad day. Once I was diagnosed, then it became, all right, what are we going to do? We’re going to, we’re going to attack this.

We’re going to fight this with everything we had. So I wound up going to UMass, and they connected me with an oncologist there. And we started with the 5FU, and they gave that to me for three months every other week, and then surgery.

And then the plan was for after surgery, we get three more months worth of chemo, and then we do a CAT scan and take a look and see where we’re at. And the Oxaliplatin was very successful at that time. It shrank the tumor down.

The surgeon said when he got in there, he was like, wow, it really shrank that tumor down. And they were really excited because they said we got it all. And so I had the chemotherapy for the next three months, and everything looked good.

But I had another CAT scan after we ended that second set of chemo, and it was in my lungs. So the fight was on again. I mean, this was back in 2016.

You can only do the Xelliaplatin for so long because it’s, you know, it gives you neuropathy. And it did shrink my tumors, but the neuropathy started to become too much. And I was on that drug every other week from 2016 till, I want to say 2020 or 2021.

So I had probably hundreds of treatments, and it made me sick. Every other week, I’d go to bed for four days, and I wouldn’t eat or drink, and I couldn’t really talk to anyone. In 2021, I think my oncologist, because I think they started to grow a little bit more aggressively, wanted to take a different angle, and we started doing some microwave ablations.

And I think I went through three microwave ablations on my right lung, and then two on my left lung, and it helped, but it didn’t stop anything. The cancer actually came back a little bit in my back, and we were discussing it. And the last drug was a pill called Wunser, and she put me on the Wunser, and that just made me feel horrible, and it wasn’t stopping anything.

And I think my oncologist at UMass was getting very frustrated for me because we were at the end of the road, and I was starting to feel it. I developed a cough. When I was getting chemo, I would go in on Tuesday and get infused.

I would leave with a pump, and I would have the pump Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and then I would go back on Thursday for disconnect. Before I left the hospital on Tuesday, I would already be feeling seasick, carsick, spinning, disgusting. Wednesday, I’d be in bed.

I couldn’t drink. I couldn’t eat. I would throw up.

Thursday, a friend would come to pick me up to take me to the hospital. I’d have to get into a wheelchair to be brought up to the room. They would have to give me a liter of fluids.

They’d have to give me out of van because I developed anticipatory nausea so I could see my nurse and throw up because she was connected to what was making me feel horrible. It was horrible how nauseous I was, and I would get disconnected, and I would feel horrible for the rest of the day, Thursday, and I started not being able to recover for the full day on Friday. I couldn’t run.

It took everything out of me to walk my dog. It was really, really scary. I had fabulous nurses at UMass, and I remember pretty early on, my nurse Carrie saying, you know, you should consider clinical trials, and I said, okay, I’ll do whatever I have to do, and she got in touch with Dr. Schlechter at Dana-Farber, and I feel like the two of them fought to get me into this trial, and it’s been kind of amazing, but it was like I didn’t, it was like I saw a little bit of light, but I didn’t dare hope yet at that time.

I went in for my first infusion, and you know, I think I had to have EKG, and they would take my vitals. Like, there was all this protocol when I first started, but I didn’t care. Like, if this was going to be a challenge, you do whatever you want to me.

I’m open. I am grateful for this chance, right? I mean, so grateful, and the infusion was easy, and we left Dana-Farber, and I wasn’t sick.

I would always say I have cancer every other week because the week that I was off the chemo, I would be sick for that week, but then I’d bounce back versus going for an infusion now. I drive myself to Dana-Farber. I meet with my team, either the oncologist, but there’s always a research nurse.

I go in for my infusion with a cup of coffee and a snack. I fool around with the nurse. I get my infusion, and I read a book, and then I hop in my car and crank my radio up high, and I drive home, and I get home, and I cook dinner, and I walk my dog, and I appreciate how good I feel, and I try to always remember after every infusion how good I feel.

I am not… I can eat things I haven’t been able to eat in eight years. I can drink hot coffee.

I couldn’t do that before because my lips were so sensitive. I’m not dizzy. I have tons of energy.

I feel strong. I could go on and on and on. My kids, my kids.

One is going into his junior year in college, and one just graduated high school. I was hoping that I just wanted to see them both graduate high school like that. Like I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to.

Now I feel greedy. Now I want to see them be adults, you know, and I feel like I can have that glimmer of hope. This opportunity to participate in this clinical trial has been a game changer for sure, and it, for me, has been incredibly easy.

I would hope that it would become approved. Just based on, I mean, like it just has been so easy for me. It’s wonderful.
I’m so grateful that my oncologist at UMass thought enough of me to fight for me to get me into this clinical trial. It’s been amazing.