Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, Chief Executive Officer at The Max Foundation, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“In October 2011, 14 years ago, I met a young medical student in Addis Ababa. Having a diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) himself, he was one of the four patients whose condition we checked on the first day the hospital performed molecular monitoring with a GeneXpert in Ethiopia, made available through our collaboration at The Max Foundation with Cepheid. He was doing well back then, already in remission. However, he was facing the need for life-long treatment.
Years later, once research showed that some patients might be able to get off treatment and still keep their remission (TFR), in the back of my mind, I wanted to put the systems in place for him to try.
He was my focus when we envisioned the TFR support program. But there was a war in Ethiopia, and given the large size of the program, my dream seemed impossible.
Finally, in April 2024, I was back in Addis Ababa and discussed the program with my friend, now a hematologist himself. As his friend, I encouraged him to consider trying to get off treatment as I feel quite confident these days with TFR when the conditions are right. As a person living with this disease, he was quite hesitant. By the end of my visit, he had decided to try.
In May of this year, my dear friend had his one-year treatment-free test.
The result: undetectable disease. After one year of being successfully off treatment, chances are that he will continue to be able to remain on treatment free remission for the foreseeable future.
I am so happy for him, and this gives me strength to keep pushing through what seems like constant insurmountable barriers. If everything else fails, today I know we have helped this wonderful person to stop taking a treatment he no longer needs. Today, I take the win.
My dream is for everyone living with CML to have the same opportunity to optimize the management of their disease, regardless of geography.”
More posts featuring Pat Garcia-Gonzalez on OncoDaily.