Hi, I’m Dr. John, and I’m here to save your life.” Those were the words of hope that Kimberly Henshaw heard right when she was convinced her life was over. Months prior, Kimberly found a small pea sized bump on her thigh. It didn’t seem unusual until three days later, when it had grown in size. It didn’t take long before she noticed another lump, this time on her arm. She knew something was wrong.
Kimberly went to six doctors who all gave her a prognoses of dying and told her that she should start doing the things she really wanted to do. She didn’t hesitate to start checking things off of her bucket list, she only had months to live.
She took off an adventure of a lifetime and did things she always wanted to do, never expecting the news she’d hear upon her return.
Kimberly met with Dr John Nemunaitis at Mary Crowley Cancer research center in Medical City Dallas hospital. He convinced her he was going to save her life, suggesting a treatment for Kimberly that was still in clinical trial stages. It is called T-Vec. The doctors take the virus that causes herpes and remove one of the genes in that virus and re-engineer it. After they re-engineer it, they take it and inject it into the tumor. The gene that is injected takes the immune system and turns it on. It alerts the immune system to the fact that there is something wrong with the body and it begins to attack the cancer cells.
Kimberly didn’t get sick like you usually do from cancer treatment and she never lost any of her hair. It was as if her body embraced the treatment with open arms. She gets bi-scans and there has been no cancer that has reoccurred — she’s like a walking miracle.
Kimberly Henshaw says she feels like she’s alive so she can give people hope that it is possible to live with cancer. Her story is one you won’t regret hearing.
