In Poland, lung cancer is diagnosed in approximately 22 people annually. In 2015, 29-year-old Kasia Czapska was among them. The only chance of survival turned out to be a clinical trial.
29 years old and a ruthless diagnosis. Do you remember your first thought when the word cancer was mentioned?
It pushed me into the armchair, I thought it was a bad dream and I would wake up in a moment. My first thought was the one and a half year old child who was waiting for me in Siedlce. Who will bring them up when I’m gone? The child should have a mother. At such moments you don’t even think about yourself …
It wasn’t a benign tumor …
No, non-small cell non-squamous adenocarcinoma.
Did you smoke?
I have never lit a single cigarette in my life. I didn’t understand why, how, where … at this age … If someone told me they would get smokers’ cancer, I would never believe it. It was a cosmos – after all, there are people who do not part with their cigarettes and live almost to a hundred.
Nobody got sick in the family?
Grandfather – died very quickly. Three months after diagnosis. There was no hope, but he had burned like a dragon all his life. Two or three packets a day. Even when he got sick, he didn’t stop. He said it was the only pleasure he had left. He still asked me, I was buying it. Sometimes I think that if I ignited it, I would at least know what for.
When did you feel that something was wrong and it was worth getting tested?
There was no such moment.
Nothing – no shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain?
You know how it is like – a shoemaker walks without shoes. I am a physiotherapist by profession, so maybe I should be more careful. I coughed a little, had occasional colds, took antibiotics and it passed. When I got back to work from maternity, it all happened on crazy papers. There was no time to wonder what was wrong with me. I worked in two shifts, like in a spinning wheel: work, home, child, work, home, child. By the time…
?
One of the patients looked at me during the visit and said: Kasia, your neck is swollen on the right side. I didn’t even pay attention to it. I came home and stood in front of the bathroom mirror. In fact, something was wrong … Later I did an ultrasound – it turned out that the lymph nodes are very enlarged. Sarcoidosis was suspected and I was referred to the hospital. Chest X-ray showed blackout, tomography – a lesion of 55 by 58 mm. In the hospital in Siedlce, no one wanted to undertake a biopsy, I ended up at the Oncology Center. In February 2015 in Warsaw, I heard the words for the first time: 94% of us have a malignant tumor.
What treatment did the doctors propose?
I offered myself. I asked the Doctor: when do you remove my lung? I heard that the tumor is inoperable. There are two options left: chemotherapy and radiation therapy. There was no question of the second solution – sixth segment, left lung, too close to the heart …
Chemistry left?
Or a new research program for treatment of advanced stages of non-small cell non-squamous cell lung cancer. I was given a form to read, but I didn’t even know what I was reading. I entered the office and said: Doctor, I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know what to do … If this is my only chance to survive, I make up my mind. Send the clipping to America and we’ll see.
I?
I entered the program, I was computer-randomly selected for group B.
Meaning?
I didn’t get into the immunotherapy group, only the three-day, three-component chemotherapy group. After the first infusion, I was afraid he would not survive. I left the hospital in a wheelchair, and at home I stayed in bed for a week. My whole body ached, muscles, bones. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t drink, I couldn’t even hug my baby when she was crying. My husband helped me a lot – he took care of the house.
Did the treatment help?
It was very good at first. After the first three infusions, the tumor had shrunk by half, but in October the tomography showed a relapse. The chemistry stopped working – the tumor grew, a second appeared. This is how I ended up in group A – on November 5, I took an immunological drug. After the first dose I got a very high fever of around 40 degrees C. It passed after three days, there were no other side effects. No vomiting, rash, general weakness. I felt well.
And now?
Complete, partial regression is maintained – the first tumor is 12 mm, the second is gone. I can go up the stairs to the fourth floor to the hospital ward, I used to take the elevator before. Clean up, cook dinner. The doctor says that she is satisfied with the effects of the treatment. Were it not for the fact that I come to Warsaw twice a month for infusions, I would not feel sick. There is one downside to all of this – I will never go back to my profession. I cannot work physically, apart from cancer, I also have a thrombosis. I get tired quickly.
Has your contract with the sponsor of the drug expired?
No, after two years I signed an annex to the contract and I am provided with lifelong treatment. However, there are a few ifs that exclude me from the program.
What?
If the sponsor loses money, I will become pregnant or relapse. I know that not everyone is as lucky as I am. I got into the program, others have to organize fundraisers and pay colossal sums. If it wasn’t for the clinical trial, I don’t know if I would talk to you? Would I be alive at all? In Poland, lung cancer patients are treated as second-class patients. Cancer in an advanced stage is a sentence in our country, while a chronic disease abroad. We hear all the time that innovative therapies will be reimbursed, but it ends with promises.
What would you like apart from health?
Information and alternatives. There is still little to be heard about the latest treatments. Doctors don’t talk about it either. I just wish I knew where I stand. Have a plan B for life, not live from tomography to tomography. Fall asleep peacefully, not be afraid that the cancer may come back every night. With cancer you never know …